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" It is no use working with other architects. What can they do? Who does what? "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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" You can use up all the slums for new development. In all the cities of the world, there are large areas of these. Also, you can avoid the spread of these silly suburban houses. Chicago has thousands of them all over the place. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

" We have to know that life cannot be changed by us. It will be changed. But not by us. We can only guide the things that can cause physical change. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

" Architecture depends on its time. It is the crystallization of its inner structure, the slow unfolding of its form. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

" I do not oppose form, but only form as a goal. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

" It is much better to have just one idea, and if the idea is clear, then you can fight for it. That is how you can get things done. "

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

" 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

" Means must be subsidiary to ends and to our desire for dignity and value. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

" Reinforced concrete buildings are by nature skeletal buildings. No noodles nor armoured turrets. A construction of girders that carry the weight, and walls that carry no weight. That is to say, buildings consisting of skin and bones. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

" What would life be like if everybody insisted you must have actually built such-and-such a thing by yourself? I'd be an old man and have nothing to show for the aging. "

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

" 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. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

" If one limits to developing only the kitchen and bathroom as standardized rooms because of their installation, and then also decides to arrange the remaining living area with movable walls, I believe that any justified living requirements can be met. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

" I do not think it is an advantage to build planned packaged houses. If you prefabricate a house completely, it becomes an unnecessary restriction. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

" Each material has its specific characteristics which we must understand if we want to use it. This is no less true of steel and concrete. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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

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

" The building art is, in reality, always the spatial execution of spiritual decisions. It is bound to its times and manifests itself only in addressing vital tasks with the means of its times. A knowledge of the times, its tasks, and its means is the necessary precondition of work in the building art. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

" We made drawings the size of a whole quarter of a room ceiling, which we would then send on to the model makers. I did this every day for two years. Even now I can draw cartouches with my eyes closed. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

" 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. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

" Most of our designs are developed long before there is a practical possibility of carrying them out. I do that on purpose and have done it all my life. I do it when I am interested in something. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

" 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. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

" 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. "

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

" It must be possible to solve the task of controlling nature and yet simultaneously create a new freedom. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

" Not yesterday, not tomorrow, only today can be given form. Only this architecture creates. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

" 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. "

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

" The building art is man's spatial dialogue with his environment and demonstrates how he asserts himself therein and how he masters it. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

" Create form out of the nature of the task with the means of our time. This is our work. "

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe