We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and human beings together in a higher unity.
Ludwig Mies Van Der RoheRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Architecture should reflect the objective needs and capabilities of the time, showcasing its greatness.
This quote by Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe emphasizes the importance of architecture being both functional and objective, suggesting that when these demands are met, contemporary buildings will embody the potential of their era. He argues that any criticism of modern architecture lacking greatness is misguided if the principles of objectivity and functionality are duly recognized and fulfilled.
Themes
ArchitectureFunctionalityObjectivityGreatnessDesign
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote to discuss architectural principles in a lecture.
More from Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe
All quotes →Architecture depends on facts, but its real field of activity lies in the realm of the significance.
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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.
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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.
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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 RoheRead
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 RoheRead
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