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" 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
Man
You
Yourself
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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
World
You
Chicago
" It is no use working with other architects. What can they do? Who does what? "
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Working
Who
Use
" Architecture is always the will of the age conceived as space - nothing else. Until this simple truth is clearly recognized, the struggle over the foundation of a new architecture confident in its aims and powerful in its impact cannot be realized; until then, it is destined to remain a chaos of uncoordinated forces. "
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Truth
Truth Is
Age
" Means must be subsidiary to ends and to our desire for dignity and value. "
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Dignity
Ends
Must
" 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
Inside
Living
Always
" Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space. "
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Will
Epoch
Architecture
" 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. "
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Buildings
First
Me
" Education must lead us from the irresponsible opinion to true responsible judgment. It must lead us from chance and arbitrariness to rational clarity and intellectual order. Therefore, let us guide our students over the road of discipline from materials, through function, to creative work. "
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Discipline
Education
Work
" 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
Him
Understood
Sense
" You can teach students how to work; you can teach them technique - how to use reason; you can even give them a sense of proportions - of order. You can teach them general principles. "
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Work
Reason
Principles
" It must be possible to solve the task of controlling nature and yet simultaneously create a new freedom. "
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
New
Possible
Nature
" 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
Beauty
Things
Always
" 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
Three
Spiritual
View
" 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
Hope
Young
Architecture
" It is not architectural achievement that makes the structures of earlier times seem to us so full of significance but the circumstance that antique temples, Roman basilicas, and even the cathedrals of the Middle Ages are not the works of single personalities but creations of entire epochs. "
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Us
Antique
Single
" I don't want to be interesting. I want to be good. "
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Interesting
Want
Good
" The office building is a building for work, organization, lucidity and economy. Light, spacious working rooms, clearly arranged, undivided, only organized according to the pattern of the firm. "
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Light
Organization
Work
" 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
You
Things
Fight
" 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
Education
Spiritual
True
" Wherever technology reaches its real fulfillment, it transcends into architecture. "
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Technology
Real
Architecture
" 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
Politics
Say
Time
" 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
Wisdom
Unity
Clarity
" 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. "
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
History
Great
Time
" Architecture depends on its time. It is the crystallization of its inner structure, the slow unfolding of its form. "
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Slow
Structure
Architecture
" Less is more. "
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Less Is More
More
Architecture
" We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and human beings together in a higher unity. "
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Nature
Together
Unity
" 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
Us
Result
Process
" 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. "
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Spiritual
Day
Spirit
" 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
Planned
House
Build
" Every How is carried by a What. "
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Carried
Every
How