Quotes about Architecture

“We were kind of arrogant when we started and became really humbled as we were doing architecture. It's really hard to work with budgets and deadlines and all of these collaborators and all of these voices and special interests.”

“Without this spirit, Modernist architecture cannot fully exist. Since there is often a mismatch between the logic and the spirit of Modernism, I use architecture to reconcile the two.”

“Newport Center has become a Mediterranean town. The climate here is the same as the Mediterranean's, and so is the architecture. This center exudes a radiance, an energy. It will become a special way of life for everyone.”

“The truth be told, the World Trade Center was neither a very good work of architecture nor a very successful piece of urbanism. Its shortcomings were somewhat mitigated by the westward and southward expansion of the World Financial Center and Battery Park City during the 1980s.”

“There is no sadder tale in the annals of architecture than the virtual disappearance of the defining architectural form of the Modern Movement - publicly sponsored housing.”

“My apartment reflects my views as an architect. It is minimal, austere. The architecture doesn't impose itself upon you. The apartment is a stage for other things to take place.”

“One of the stated goals of the postmodern movement in architecture was a greater sensitivity to the people who live in or use newly designed buildings.”

“Space has always been the spiritual dimension of architecture. It is not the physical statement of the structure so much as what it contains that moves us.”

“India and Egypt have been strongly influencing each other's culture, arts and architecture since ancient times.”

“The dialogue of architecture has been centered too long around the idea of truth.”

“The beauty of architecture is it involves work that stretches over a very long time but often starts in one instant, with just one emotion, a kind of instinctual response.”

“I loved medieval architecture when I was very small; I don't know why.”

“Cost overruns are not uncommon in architecture, particularly for designs that depart from structural or technological norms, or demand a finer quality of execution than commercial schemes - conditions typical of buildings for cultural institutions. Budgets are exceeded for many reasons, not all of them within an architect's control.”

“Wherever technology reaches its real fulfillment, it transcends into architecture.”

“If you look at any leaf on any tree branch, it's similar to but not exactly a repetition of the previous branch. So the new science of complexity or showing how an architecture can be produced just as quickly, cheaply and efficiently by using computer production methods to get the slight variation, the self-similarity.”

“You don't have to spend much time in Shanghai before you start to get all existential about the meaning of authenticity. Did you know that Shanghai is building nine satellite towns, each designed to mimic the architecture and culture of a different country?”

“The team architecture means setting up an organization that helps people produce that great work in teams.”

“Architecture is a negotiated art, and it's highly political, and if you want to make buildings, there is diplomacy required.”

“One of the most persistent yet elusive dreams of the Modern Movement in architecture has been prefabrication: industrially made structures that can be assembled at a building site.”

“The building of the architecture of a novel - the craft of it - is something I never tire of.”

“Sand dunes are almost like ready-made buildings in a way. All we need to do is solidify the parts that we need to be solid, and then excavate the sand, and we have our architecture. We can either excavate it by hand, or we can have the wind excavate it for us.”