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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 -
Architecture wrote the history of the epochs and gave them their names.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
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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.
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 -
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 -
It is better to be good than to be original.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe -
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.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe -
But what if we are dealing with fools?
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
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When it becomes economically possible, building will become montage.
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 -
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 -
Technology is rooted in the past. It dominates the present and tends into the future. It is a real historical movement - one of the great movements which shape and represent their epoch.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe -
Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins.
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
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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 -
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.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe -
Cheese was the staple. Bread you brought from home. The Schnaps came later. At the end of the week when people got paid, that's when you got your Schnaps, lots of it, five Pfennige a shot.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe -
Architecture is a language. When you are very good, you can be a poet
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe -
Generally, I think my work has so much influence because of its reasonableness.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe -
Architecture begins when you place two bricks carefully together.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
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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 -
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.
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 -
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