Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Architecture begins when you place two bricks carefully together.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Nothing can express the aim and meaning of our work better than the profound words of St. Augustine - 'Beauty is the splendor of Truth.'

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Architecture is always the will of the age conceived as space - nothing else. Until this simple truth is clearly recognized, the struggle over the foundation of a new architecture confident in its aims and powerful in its impact cannot be realized; until then, it is destined to remain a chaos of uncoordinated forces.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

I hope you will understand that architecture has nothing to do with the inventions of forms. It is not a playground for children, young or old. Architecture is the real battleground of the spirit.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Not yesterday, not tomorrow, only today can be given form. Only this architecture creates.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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 Rohe

What finally is beauty? Certainly nothing that can be calculated or measured. It is always something imponderable, something that lies between things.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

It must be understood that every architecture is bound to its time and manifests itself only in vital tasks and through the materials of its age. It has never been otherwise.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Our utilitarian structures will mature into architecture only when, through their fulfillment of function, they become carriers of the will of the age.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Less is more.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

God is in the details.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

The building art is, in reality, always the spatial execution of spiritual decisions. It is bound to its times and manifests itself only in addressing vital tasks with the means of its times. A knowledge of the times, its tasks, and its means is the necessary precondition of work in the building art.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

I hope you will understand that architecture has nothing to do with the inventions of forms. It is not a playground for children, young or old. Architecture is the real battleground of the spirit.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Architecture depends on its time. It is the crystallization of its inner structure, the slow unfolding of its form.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Wherever technology reaches its real fulfillment, it transcends into architecture.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Never talk to a client about architecture. Talk to him about his children. That is simply good politics. he will not understand what you have to say about architecture most of the time.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

God is in the details.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space. Living, Changing, New. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, only today can be given form. Only such architecture is creative.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Architecture depends on facts, but its real field of activity lies in the realm of the significance.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

True education is concerned not only with practical goals but also with values. Our aims assure us of our material life, our values make possible our spiritual life.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe