Ludwig Mies
Ludwig Mies
Born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies and known professionally as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe or simply Mies, this German architect was responsible for such modernist masterpieces as the Barcelona Pavilion and the Czech Republic's Villa Tugendhat.
ProfessionArchitect
Date of Birth27 March 1886
directed ends form inside towards
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.
beauty certainly lies
What finally is beauty? Certainly nothing that can be calculated or measured. It is always something imponderable, something that lies between things.
attempt beings beware bring color disrupt higher houses human interior life nature shall
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.
architecture depends field realm
Architecture depends on facts, but its real field of activity lies in the realm of the significance.
reaches technology transcends
Wherever technology reaches its real fulfillment, it transcends into architecture.
attempt beings bring higher human nature
We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and human beings together in a higher unity.
aim beauty express meaning profound splendor truth words work
Nothing can express the aim and meaning of our work better than the profound words of St. Augustine - 'Beauty is the splendor of Truth.'
area arrange bathroom believe decides developing justified remaining rooms
If one limits to developing only the kitchen and bathroom as standardized rooms because of their installation, and then also decides to arrange the remaining living area with movable walls, I believe that any justified living requirements can be met.
everybody insisted life man
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.
certainly great main understood
Behrens had a great sense of the great form. that was his main interest; and that I certainly understood and learned from him.
industrial rubber
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.
work
I thought a lot and I controlled my thoughts in my work - and I controlled my work through my thoughts.
architecture given
Not yesterday, not tomorrow, only today can be given form. Only this architecture creates.
architecture hope inventions playground
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.