We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and human beings together in a higher unity.
Ludwig Mies Van Der RoheRead
The problem of architecture has always been the same throughout time. Its authentic quality is reached through its proportions, and the proportions cost nothing. In fact, most of them are proportions among things, not the things themselves. Art is almost always a question of proportions.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The essence of architecture lies in proportions, not in material costs or the objects themselves.
Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe suggests that the true nature of architecture transcends the physical materials used; it is rooted in the relationships and proportions between different elements. This highlights the idea that art, including architecture, is fundamentally about balance and harmony, which can be achieved without monetary expenditure.
Themes
ArchitectureProportionsArtQualityDesign
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation about sustainable architecture, one might quote Mies Van Der Rohe to emphasize the importance of design aesthetics over material costs.
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.
Ludwig Mies Van Der RoheRead
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.
Ludwig Mies Van Der RoheRead
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.
Ludwig Mies Van Der RoheRead
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.
Ludwig Mies Van Der RoheRead
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.
Ludwig Mies Van Der RoheRead
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