We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and human beings together in a higher unity.
Ludwig Mies Van Der RoheRead
The architect must get to know the people who will live in the planned house. From their needs, the rest inevitably follows.
Interpretation
Understanding the future inhabitants' needs is crucial for effective architectural design.
This quote emphasizes the importance of an architect's connection with the people who will occupy the spaces they create. By deeply understanding the needs and desires of the residents, an architect can design functional and meaningful spaces that resonate with those who live in them. It suggests that the design process should be user-centered, with the inhabitants' experiences and lifestyle at the forefront of architectural considerations.
In practice
In a presentation on architecture, I quoted Mies Van Der Rohe to highlight the importance of understanding user needs.
We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and human beings together in a higher unity.
Architecture depends on facts, but its real field of activity lies in the realm of the significance.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The difference between a builder and an architect is that an architect also cares about desire, about dreams.
I'm a bad customer for my own buildings! If I'm choosing an apartment, I choose one about five or six stories high so that I can see the people, the trees, and the world on the street. Beyond that, I lose contact with the ground!
A greater focus on design in all new homes would make the best use of land, create homes and public spaces, and reinforce the structures of urban life.
It is difficult to design a space that will not attract people. What is remarkable is how often this has been accomplished.
Whoβs afraid of the big, bad buildings? Everyone, because there are so many things about gigantism that we just donβt know. The gamble of triumph or tragedy at this scale β and ultimately it is a gamble β demands an extraordinary payoff. The trade center towers could be the start of a new skyscraper age or the biggest tombstones in the world.
The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines - so they should go as far as possible from home to build their first buildings.
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