“I loved logic, math, computer programming. I loved systems and logic approaches. And so I just figured architecture is this perfect combination.”
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.
“People kind of tend to mystify design and architecture by suggesting you need to train.”
“I loved logic, math, computer programming. I loved systems and logic approaches. And so I just figured architecture is this perfect combination.”
“Every building is a prototype. No two are alike.”
“The new architecture of transparency and lightness comes from Japan and Europe.”
“All those involved in the construction of an architectural design, from the architect to the builder, have an attachment to the architecture, although it's difficult to quantify the attachment.”
“Switzerland is a small, steep country, much more up and down than sideways, and is all stuck over with large brown hotels built on the cuckoo clock style of architecture.”
“It is not with architecture that one can disseminate any political ideology.”
“The American attitude towards efficiency and execution should always underlie architecture.”
“I see the Beijing National Stadium as an architectural project. I accepted Herzog and De Meuron's invitation to collaborate on the design, and our proposal won the competition. From beginning to end, I stayed with the project. I am committed to fostering relationships between a city and its architecture.”
“We are stymied by regulations, limited choice and the threat of litigation. Neither consultants nor industry itself provide research which takes architecture forward.”
“Architecture will always express the technical and social progress of the country in which it is carried out. If we wish to give it the human content that it lacks, we must participate in the political struggle.”
“In addressing a task, one almost always has several possible options, sometimes only a few, and they may all be practical and functional. But they lack the aesthetic aspect that raises it to architecture.”
“The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.”
“I search for surprise in my architecture. A work of art should cause the emotion of newness.”
“The English light is so very subtle, so very soft and misty, that the architecture responded with great delicacy of detail.”
“I call architecture frozen music.”