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
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
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
It is no use working with other architects. What can they do? Who does what? – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Not yesterday, not tomorrow, only today can be given form. Only this architecture creates. – 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
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
The unformed is not worse than the over-formed. The former is nothing; the latter is mere appearance. Real form presupposes real life. – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
I think that an industrial process is not like a rubber stamp. Everything has to be put together and, as such, should have its own expression. – 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
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
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. – 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
The architect must get to know the people who will live in the planned house. From their needs, the rest inevitably follows. – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Industrialization of the building trade is a question of material. Hence the demand for a new building material is the first prerequisite. – 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
We refuse to recognize problems of form, but only problems of building. Form is not the aim of our work, but only the result. Form, by itself, does not exist. Form as an aim is formalism; and that we reject. – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
I thought a lot and I controlled my thoughts in my work – and I controlled my work through my thoughts. – 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
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
When one looks at Nature through the glass walls of the Farnsworth House, it takes on a deeper significance than when one stands outside. More of Nature is thus expressed – it becomes part of a greater whole. – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space. Living, Changing, New. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, only today can be given form. Only such architecture is creative. – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
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
