A biography for Ludwig Mies van der Rohehasn’t been written yet.
“When it becomes economically possible, building will become montage.”
“I see in industrialization the central problem of building in our time. If we succeed in carrying out this industrialization, the social, economic, technical, and also artistic problems will be readily solved.”
“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.”
“Architecture depends on its time. It is the crystallization of its inner structure, the slow unfolding of its form.”
“The unformed is not worse than the over-formed. The former is nothing; the latter is mere appearance. Real form presupposes real life.”
“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.”
“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.”
“We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and human beings together in a higher unity.”
“Architecture begins when you place two bricks carefully together.”
“In addition to the wishes of the client, the position, orientation, and size of the plot also play an important role in determining the final plan of the house. The 'where' and 'how' of the exterior then follows naturally from all of that.”
“Simply by not owning three medium-sized castles in Tuscany I have saved enough money in the last forty years on insurance premiums alone to buy a medium-sized castle in Tuscany.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Industrialization of the building trade is a question of material. Hence the demand for a new building material is the first prerequisite.”
“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.”
“I especially remember that on All Souls Day, when so many people wanted new monuments for the graves, our whole family pitched in. I did the lettering on the stones, my brother did the carving, and my sisters put the finishing touches on them, the gold leaf and all that.”
“A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous.”
“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.”