Less is More

"Less is More" is a designer's mantra. Mies Van Der Rohe, one of the founding fathers of the Modern Movement in architecture, made the sentence (and concept) famous with his simple, radically clean approach to architecture, as a reaction to the previously prevailing (and heavily decorated) eclectic movements and Art Noveau.

Without going so high brow though, this idea can be found in many other contexts, I even found a quote from Bruce Lee that says "Simplicity is the key to brilliance"

As a designer myself, I've gone through alternate phases of love and hate for the concept, and I'm sure a lot of people do the same.

Lately though, I'm starting to look at it with new eyes: I'm coming to the realization that our lives need that more than our designs. We live in a state of constant chatter, with too many (useless) things to do or say, too many goals, requirements, external pressures, internal pressures, responsibilities, stress generators, mail, bills ... you name it. does our life really need to be so confused? it seems that "less is more" is becoming a more and more powerful thought to apply to so many aspects of our lives.

I'm not sure yet whether it has to stay "less" forever, I believe in change, cycles, things that morph and grow into something else.

One thing I'm sure about though: whenever anything makes you feel overwhelmed (in a bad way, of course), "less is more" is probably a good way to look at things, and to get through.

Mahalo

ps: the image in this post isn't from a building that Mies Van Der Rohe designed, it's the "church of Light" by Japanese architect Tadao Ando (one of my favorites), I used this image because I believe it so beautyfully represents the concept: subtraction can be more powerful at times.

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