In his own words..
Jaja, het wordt hier wat stil, maar hier een leuke serie quotes van onze godfather Mies. Leestip: eerst even Hays' 'Between culture and form' voor de geest halen, dan dit lezen. Fantastisch. Al deze leuke quotes komen uit 'The oral history of Modern Architecture' van John Peter (JP). Vooral leuk voor Michiel en liefhebbers van mixen in het algemeen.
"I throw often things out [ideeën] I like very much. They are dear to my heart, but when I have a better conviction, a better idea, a clearer idea, then I follow the clearer idea."
-JP: "So you sought what was characteristic of the epoch."
M: "What is the essence of the epoch. And that is the only thing we really can express, and what is worth to express."
"I don't want to be interesting, I want to be good"
"I am not working on architecture, I am working on architecture as a language."
"In fact, I think the Barcelona Pavilion, if I would have built it in brick, it would be as good a building. I am quite sure it would have been not as succesful as marble, but that has nothing to do with the idea."
-JP: "And your sketches for the glass skyscraper?"
M: "There I was interested in glass and what can be done with glass buidlings. I tried to avoid certain glare or dead front. ...they were just studies in glass. I was thinking about a building all right, but that was a particular study in glass."
JP: "You set the Seagram Building back at a time when nobody else set buildings back.
M: "I set it back so you could see it. That was the reason. You know, if you go to New York
you really have to look at these canopies to find where you are. ..So I set it back for this reason."
JP: "Why was the material bronze?
M: "We used bronze because of the client. Just in the talk we had, he said, "I like bronze and marble". I said, "That's good enough for me!""
"I throw often things out [ideeën] I like very much. They are dear to my heart, but when I have a better conviction, a better idea, a clearer idea, then I follow the clearer idea."
-JP: "So you sought what was characteristic of the epoch."
M: "What is the essence of the epoch. And that is the only thing we really can express, and what is worth to express."
"I don't want to be interesting, I want to be good"
"I am not working on architecture, I am working on architecture as a language."
"In fact, I think the Barcelona Pavilion, if I would have built it in brick, it would be as good a building. I am quite sure it would have been not as succesful as marble, but that has nothing to do with the idea."
-JP: "And your sketches for the glass skyscraper?"
M: "There I was interested in glass and what can be done with glass buidlings. I tried to avoid certain glare or dead front. ...they were just studies in glass. I was thinking about a building all right, but that was a particular study in glass."
JP: "You set the Seagram Building back at a time when nobody else set buildings back.
M: "I set it back so you could see it. That was the reason. You know, if you go to New York
you really have to look at these canopies to find where you are. ..So I set it back for this reason."
JP: "Why was the material bronze?
M: "We used bronze because of the client. Just in the talk we had, he said, "I like bronze and marble". I said, "That's good enough for me!""
posted by Ruben at 12/14/2005 10:06:00 p.m.
2 Comments:
... dat is toch nog vrij schokkend, ook al weet je wel ongeveer hoe Mies dacht.
Hays' visie op Mies gaat veel te ver, maar toch heeft hij wel een punt.
Daarbij komt dat een architect vaak dingen onbewust doet. Mies over Mies geeft geen compleet beeld.
Er is nog meer! Ondermeer over kleur (maakt Mies niet uit, laat maar aan kunstenaar over) en het Barcelona paviljoen (maten gebaseerd op het blok marmer dat ie het snelst kon krijgen).
Wat mij treft is dat 'ie juist heel bewust op zoek was naar een bepaalde uitdrukking, zoals je kunt opmaken uit de eerste paar quotes. Dus om het nu aan zijn onderbewuste toe te schrijven...
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