“Architecture has recorded the great ideas of the human race. Not only every religious symbol, but every human thought has its page in that vast book.”
Buildings shape how we live, work, and think. These quotes from architects, designers, and urban thinkers explore the relationship between structure and human experience — how the spaces we create end up creating us in return.
“Architecture and building is about how you get around the obstacles that are presented to you. That sometimes determines how successful you'll be: How good are you at going around obstacles?”
“Architecture has recorded the great ideas of the human race. Not only every religious symbol, but every human thought has its page in that vast book.”
“To provide meaningful architecture is not to parody history but to articulate it.”
“Great buildings that move the spirit have always been rare. In every case they are unique, poetic, products of the heart.”
“The architecture profession has lost a lot of its integrity, especially in the USA. The general architect here has no scruples, no ambitions.”
“Proportions are what makes the old Greek temples classic in their beauty. They are like huge blocks, from which the air has been literally hewn out between the columns.”
“The logic of Palladian architecture presented an aesthetic formula which could be applied universally.”
“Prose is architecture, not interior decoration, and the Baroque is over.”
“I see music as fluid architecture.”
“The details are the very source of expression in architecture. But we are caught in a vice between art and the bottom line.”
“Post-Modernism was a reaction against Modernism. It came quite early to music and literature, and a little later to architecture. And I think it's still coming to computer science.”
“Italy is full of historical buildings. And Europe holds a great history of philosophy from Greece until today. I read all those books and see these buildings, and I think of where I stand when I design my architecture.”
“I paint mostly from real life. It has to start with that. Real people, real street scenes, behind the curtain scenes, live models, paintings, photographs, staged setups, architecture, grids, graphic design. Whatever it takes to make it work.”
“I left science, then I went into art, but I approach things very analytically. I choose to pursue both art and architecture as completely separate fields rather than merging them.”
“Georgian architecture respected the scale of both the individual and the community.”
“Architecture is invention.”