Top 105 Quotes & Sayings by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe - Page 2

Where can we find greater structural clarity than in the wooden buildings of old? Where else can we find such unity of material, construction and form? here, the wisdom of whole generations is stored.

The tendency of our time is wholly oriented toward the secular. The efforts of the mystics will remain episodes. Despite a deepening of our conceptions of life, we will build no cathedrals.

It must be understood that every architecture is bound to its time and manifests itself only in vital tasks and through the materials of its age. It has never been otherwise.

I see in industrialization the central problem of building in our time. If we succeed in carrying out this industrialization, the social, economic, technical, and also artistic problems will be readily solved.

We do not evaluate the result but the starting point of the creative process. Precisely, this shows whether the form was discovered by starting from life, or for its own sake. That is why I consider the creative process so essential. Life for us is the decisive factor.

Form as a goal always ends in formalism. For this striving is directed not towards an inside, but towards an outside. But only a living inside has a living outside.

1926 was the most significant year. Looking back, it seems that it was not just a year in the sense of time. It was a year of great realisation or awareness. It seems to me that at certain times of the history of man, the understanding of certain situations ripens.

Technology is far more than a method, it is a world in itself. As a method, it is superior in almost every respect. But only where it is left to itself, as in gigantic structures of engineering, there technology reveals its true nature.

Modern buildings of our time are so huge that one must group them. Often the space between these buildings is as important as the buildings themselves.

In addition to the wishes of the client, the position, orientation, and size of the plot also play an important role in determining the final plan of the house. The 'where' and 'how' of the exterior then follows naturally from all of that.

Just as we acquaint ourselves with materials, and just as we must understand functions, we must become familiar with the psychological and spiritual factors of the day. No cultural activity is possible otherwise, for we are dependent on the spirit of our time.

I really don't know the Chicago School. You see, I never walk. I always take taxis back and forth to work. I rarely see the city.

The unformed is not worse than the over-formed. The former is nothing; the latter is mere appearance. Real form presupposes real life.

Industrialization of the building trade is a question of material. Hence the demand for a new building material is the first prerequisite.

Behrens had a great sense of the great form. that was his main interest; and that I certainly understood and learned from him.

Our utilitarian structures will mature into architecture only when, through their fulfillment of function, they become carriers of the will of the age.

I thought a lot and I controlled my thoughts in my work - and I controlled my work through my thoughts.

If there really is no new way to be found, we are not afraid to stick with the old one that we found previously. So, I do not make every building different.

We must understand the motives and forces of our time and analyze their structure from three points of view: the material, the functional, and the spiritual. We must make clear in what respects our epoch differs from others and in what respects it is similar.

In 1912, when I was working in The Hague, I first saw a drawing by Louis Sullivan of one of his buildings. It interested me.

The demands of the time for objectivity and functionality must be fulfilled. If that clearly happens, then the buildings of our day will convey the greatness of which the age is capable, and only a fool will maintain that they lack it.

We must remember that everything depends on how we use a material, not on the material itself... New materials are not necessarily superior. Each material is only what we make it.

Architecture is a language. When you are very good, you can be a poet

Architecture is the will of the age conceived in spatial terms.

God dwells in the details.

If teaching has any purpose, it is to implant true insight and responsibility. Education must lead us from irresponsible opinion to true responsible judgement. It must lead us from chance and arbitrariness to rational clarity and intellectual order.

Never talk to a client about architecture. Talk to him about his children.

The long path from material through function to creative work has only one goal: to create order out of the desperate confusion of our time.

Let us guide our students over the road of discipline from materials, through function, to creative work.

Let us guide our students over the road of discipline from materials, through function, to creative work. Let us lead them into the healthy world of primitive building methods, where there was meaning in every stroke of an axe, expression in every bite of chisel.

Architecture wrote the history of the epochs and gave them their names.

And just as we acquaint ourselves with materials, just as we must understand functions, so we must become familiar with the psychological and spiritual factors of our day. No cultural activity is possible otherwise; for we are dependent on the spirit of our time.

We must be as familiar with the functions of our building as with our materials. We must learn what a building can be, what it should be, and also what it must not be.

The individual is losing significance; his destiny is no longer what interests us.

[In art], less is more.

Architecture has the power to create order out of unholy confusion.

Where can we find greater structural clarity than in the wooden buildings of the old. Where else can we find such unity of material, construction and form? Here the wisdom of whole generations is stored. What feelings for material and what power of expression there is in these buildings! What warmth and beauty they have! They seem to be echoes of old songs.

But what if we are dealing with fools?

Never talk to a client about architecture. Talk to him about his children. That is simply good politics. He will not understand what you have to say about architecture most of the time. An architect of ability should be able to tell a client what he wants. Most of the time a client never knows what he wants.

We must have order, allocating to each thing its proper place and giving to each thing is due according to its nature.

No design is possible until the materials with which you design are completely understood

Each material is only what we make it.

First you have to learn to do something, then you can go out and do it.

It is better to be good than to be original.

Architecture is the real battleground of the spirit.