We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and human beings together in a higher unity.
Create form out of the nature of the task with the means of our time. This is our work.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Emphasizes the importance of using available resources to shape work according to its inherent requirements.
This quote by Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe underscores the concept that effective design and work should emerge naturally from the tasks at hand and the tools we have at our disposal. It reflects a philosophy that prioritizes the integration of form and function while adapting to the context in which one is operating, reiterating that the quality of our work is determined by how well we harmonize the nature of our tasks with the means available to us.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
At an architecture seminar, this quote was used to inspire students to think about how to integrate their designs with their resources.
More from Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe
All quotes βArchitecture 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.
Similar quotes
Force yourself to write down what is of no interest, what is most obvious, most common, most colourless...antique shops, clothes, hi-fi, etc. Don't say, don't write 'etc'. Make an effort to exhaust the subject, even if that seems grotesque, or pointless, or stupid. You still haven't looked at anything, you've merely picked out what you've long ago picked out.
Etretat is becoming more and more amazing. Now is the real moment: the beach with all its fine boats; it is superb, and I am enraged not to be more skillful in rendering all this. I would need two hands and hundreds of canvases.
I cannot listen to Beethoven or Mahler or Chopin or Bach when I write because those composers require you stop what you are doing and listen.
If something doesn't creep into a drawing that you're not prepared for, you might as well not have drawn it.
Some actors, I think, want to feel that they are as creative as the writer. And the answer is, frankly, they're not.
The very best design, I feel, is that which resonates so deeply that people can't help but discover something within themselves when they see it.