American - Architect | March 27, 1886 - August 17, 1969
I discovered by working with actual glass models that the important thing is the play of reflections and not the effect of light and shadow, as in ordinary buildings.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
LightShadowBuildingsPlayGlass
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.
WorkKnowledgeArtSpiritualReality
You cannot save wonderful towns. You can only save wonderful towns by building new ones.
BuildingYouNewWonderfulCannot
The building art is man's spatial dialogue with his environment and demonstrates how he asserts himself therein and how he masters it.
ArtManBuildingEnvironmentHeHow
What finally is beauty? Certainly nothing that can be calculated or measured. It is always something imponderable, something that lies between things.
BeautyNothingAlwaysSomethingLies
It must be possible to solve the task of controlling nature and yet simultaneously create a new freedom.
NatureFreedomCreateNewPossible
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.
LifeNatureLiveTogetherUnityOwn
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.
MeDrawingBuildingsFirstSawHis
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.
NatureTechnologyRespectWorldTrue
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.
HopeChildrenArchitectureYouYoung
Create form out of the nature of the task with the means of our time. This is our work.
WorkNatureTimeCreateTaskOut
I do not oppose form, but only form as a goal.
GoalOnlyFormOppose
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