Each material is only what we make it. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

We must remember that everything depends on how we use a material, not on the material itself… New materials are not necessarily superior. Each material is only what we make it. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

Each material has its specific characteristics which we must understand if we want to use it. This is no less true of steel and concrete. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

We must be as familiar with the functions of our building as with our materials. We must learn what a building can be, what it should be, and also what it must not be. — 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

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

Industrialization of the building trade is a question of material. Hence the demand for a new building material is the first prerequisite. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

The long path from material through function to creative work has only one goal: to create order out of the desperate confusion of our time. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

Architecture begins when you place two bricks carefully together. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

Architecture is a language. When you are very good, you can be a poet — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

Never talk to a client about architecture. Talk to him about his children. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

Architecture is the will of the age conceived in spatial terms. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

Architecture is the real battleground of the spirit. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

Wherever technology reaches its real fulfillment, it transcends into architecture. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

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

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

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 wrote the history of the epochs and gave them their names. — 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

It is much better to have just one idea, and if the idea is clear, then you can fight for it. That is how you can get things done. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

I do not oppose form, but only form as a goal. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

Let us guide our students over the road of discipline from materials, through function, to creative work. — 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

The office building is a building for work, organization, lucidity and economy. Light, spacious working rooms, clearly arranged, undivided, only organized according to the pattern of the firm. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

Technology is rooted in the past. It dominates the present and tends into the future. It is a real historical movement–one of the great movements which shape and represent their epoch. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

Create form out of the nature of the task with the means of our time. This is our work. — 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

I do not think it is an advantage to build planned packaged houses. If you prefabricate a house completely, it becomes an unnecessary restriction. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

It is not possible to go forward while looking back. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

You can teach students how to work; you can teach them technique–how to use reason; you can even give them a sense of proportions–of order. You can teach them general principles. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

It is no use working with other architects. What can they do? Who does what? — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

The idea of service leads to community. — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

But what if we are dealing with fools? — Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe