Mies conceived of building as arising out of a field of tension that consisted of intrinsic lawfulness on one hand and creative freedom on the other. It should afford the “required privacy combined with the freedom of open room forms” and provide a “defining” but not a “confining space” suitable for contemporary living. Behind this concept of space and architecture that defined “building” in a philosophical sense as a “giving form to reality” stood for Mies the question of the “value and dignity of human existence,” namely: “Is the world as it presents itself bearable for man? . . . . Can it be shaped so as to be worthwhile to live in?”
Neumeyer
For decades I have been moved by Mies van der Rohe’s Brick Country House without knowing why. Not knowing why may be a large part of the attraction, along with a sense of release when I look again at the drawings, also without knowing why, or where, but without feeling I have left the ground. But it is open and direct about what it is, factual, honest, as Mies would have it. This honesty may be its greatest strength, its largest mystery.
