Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Quotes

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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Profession : Architect

Birth : March 27, 1886

Simply by not owning three medium-sized castles in Tuscany I have saved enough money in the last forty years on insurance premiums alone to buy a medium-sized castle in Tuscany.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and human beings together in a higher unity.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Nature, too, shall live its own life. We must beware not to disrupt it with the color of our houses and interior fittings. yet we should not attempt to bring nature, houses, and human beings together into a higher unity.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

God is in the details.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Wherever technology reaches its real fulfillment, it transcends into architecture.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

I hope you will understand that architecture has nothing to do with the inventions of forms. It is not a playground for children, young or old. Architecture is the real battleground of the spirit.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Less is more.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

It is not possible to go forward while looking back.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

What finally is beauty? Certainly nothing that can be calculated or measured. It is always something imponderable, something that lies between things.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Nothing can express the aim and meaning of our work better than the profound words of St. Augustine - 'Beauty is the splendor of Truth.'

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

The problem of architecture has always been the same throughout time. Its authentic quality is reached through its proportions, and the proportions cost nothing. In fact, most of them are proportions among things, not the things themselves. Art is almost always a question of proportions.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

I don't want to be interesting. I want to be good.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

True education is concerned not only with practical goals but also with values. Our aims assure us of our material life, our values make possible our spiritual life.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe