Nowness - Illinois Institute of Technology

12
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,
Inaugural Address as Director
of Architecture at IIT,
20 November 1938
Translation by Fritz Neumeyer, in The Artless Word: Mies van der Rohe on the Building Art.
All education must begin with the
practical side of life, if one wants
to address real education.
However, one must transcend
this to mold the personality, lead-
ing to an improvement of mankind.
The first aim should be to
equip the student for practical life.
It gives him [or her] the proper
knowledge and skills.
The second aim addresses the
development of personality. It en-
ables him [or her] to make the right
use of this knowledge and skill.
Thus true education is con-
cerned not only with practical
goals but also with values.
By our goals we are bound
to the specific structure of our
epoch.
Our values, on the other hand,
are rooted in the spiritual [or intel-
lectual; Ger. geistigen] ] nature of
man.
Our practical aims determine
the character of our civilization.
Our values determine the height of
our culture.
Different as practical aims and
values are, arising out of different
planes, they are nevertheless
closely connected.
For to what else should our val-
ues be related if not to our aims in
life? And where should these goals
get their meaning if not through
values?
Both realms together are fun-
damental to human existence.
Our aims assure us of our material
life. Our values make possible our
spiritual [intellectual] existence.
If this is true of all human
activity where even the slightest
question of value is involved, then
it must be more true in the field of
architecture.
In its simplest form architec-
ture is entirely rooted in practical
considerations, but it can reach up
through all degrees of value to the
highest realm of spiritual [intel-
lectual] existence, into the realm
of the sensuously apprehendable,
and into the sphere of pure art.
Any teaching of architecture
must recognize this situation if we
are to succeed in our efforts.
It must fit the system to this reality,
It must explain these relations
and interrelations.
We must make clear, step by
step, what is possible, necessary,
and significant,
If teaching has any purpose at
all, it is to implant knowledge and
responsibility.
Education must lead us from ir-
responsible opinion to responsible
insight.
It must lead us from chance
and arbitrariness to the clear law-
fulness of a spiritual [intellectual]
order.
Therefore let us guide our
students over the disciplined path
from materials through the practi-
cal aims of creative work.
Let us lead them into the healthy
world of primitive buildings, where
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Legacy
Legacy