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You cannot save wonderful towns. You can only save wonderful towns by building new ones.
Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Preserving greatness requires creating new opportunities rather than clinging to the past.

This quote by Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe emphasizes the idea that instead of trying to preserve existing wonderful towns as they are, one should focus on the creation of new towns that embody the same qualities. It suggests an acceptance of change and the importance of innovation and growth in ensuring the continuity of those wonderful attributes we cherish.

Themes

ChangeInnovationBuildTownsPreservation

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be shared in a community meeting focused on urban development and revitalization.

More from Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and human beings together in a higher unity.
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Architecture depends on facts, but its real field of activity lies in the realm of the significance.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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