"In his Weissenhof Apartment Building, designed in 1926, Mies began to resolve this opposition between structure and form by means of the steel frame, the first time that he actually employed one in either project or realized structure. The exterior walls of the three-story apartment block consisted of masonry infill covered by a smooth stucco, large windows, and glass doors; floors and roof were hollow block between joists. The steel frame was crucial to Mies's architectural vision in this project. He referred to the frame as 'the most appropriate system of construction. It can be produced rationally and permits every freedom for the division of spaces inside.' It enabled him to limit the use of solid walls to separations between apartments, to introduce moveable partition walls, and to extensively open the facades with glass."

— John Zukowsky, organizer. Mies Reconsidered: His Career, Legacy, and Disciples. p58-60.

The Creator's Words

"Essentially our task is to free the practice of building from the control of aesthetic speculators and restore it to what it should exclusively be: building."

"We are concerned today with questions of a general nature. The individual is losing significance; his destiny is no longer what interests us. The decisive achievements in all fields are impersonal and their authors are for the most part unknown. They are part of the trend of our time toward anonymity."

— Mies van der Rohe. from Martin Pawley, introduction and notes. Library of Contemporary Architects: Mies van der Rohe. p13.

"This man apparently never lost himself; he always seemed capable of resolving doubts about his work that must have assailed him in the uncertainties of the post-war years. Mies could distill his insight, his reactions and his reasoning into canons that possessed a degree of universality which no other architect of our time ever achieved."

— Walter Segal, Mies van der Rohe's obituary notice. from Martin Pawley, introduction and notes. Library of Contemporary Architects: Mies van der Rohe. p18.