Our time has produced a need for contrast. This has been achieved not only in the external appearance of plastic expressions of coulor and matter, but also, and chiefly, in the tempo of life and in the techniques related to the daily, mechanical functions of life; namely standing, walking, driving, to lying and sitting – in short, every action which determines the content of architecture.

In: 'Painting: from composition towards counter-composition'; in 'Painting and plastic art', De Stijl, series XIII, 73-4, 1926, pp. 17-18