Most Famous Architecture Quotes of All Time

Most Famous Architecture Quotes of All Time: If theres anything famous architects tried to teach
us over the years is to never underestimate the power of design. Iconic architects such as Frank
Gehry, Zaha Hadid or Antoni Gaudi became famous for their intuitive thinking, out-of-the-box
approach and stunning projects but the legacies they entrust us with is far greater than that. Its
perhaps their words of wisdom that inspire us the most. Today we collected the
most constructive quotes about architecture and architectural design. We hope you enjoy them as
much as we do.

I hate vacations. If you can build buildings, why sit on the beach? Philip
Johnson
Early in life, I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility.
I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasions to change. Frank Lloyd
Wright
God is in the details. Mies van der Rohe
Architecture is the art of how to waste space. Philip Johnson
Form ever follows function. Louis Sullivan
Architects today tend to depreciate themselves, to regard themselves as no more
than just ordinary citizens without the power to reform the future. Kenzo Tange
Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space. Mies van der Rohe
Our time is so specialized that we have people who know more and more or less
and less. Alvar Aalto
A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe and 50 times: It is a
beautiful catastrophe. Le Corbusier
Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design. Charles Eames
Architecture begins where engineering ends. Walter Gropius
No architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect. John Ruskin
Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in
the light. Le Corbusier
An idea is salvation by imagination. Frank Lloyd Wright
To create architecture is to put in order. Put what in order? Function and
objects. Le Corbusier
But the buildings identity resided in the ornament. Louis Sullivan
Less is more. Mies van der Rohe
It was the spirit animating the mass and flowing from it, and it expressed the
individuality of the building. Louis Sullivan
Not many architects have the luxury to reject significant things. Rem
Koolhaus
A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to
plant vines. Frank Lloyd Wright
Youve got to bumble forward into the unknown. Frank Gehry
I dont want to be interesting. I want to be good. Mies van der Rohe
Nothing is as dangerous in architecture as dealing with separated problems. If we
split life into separated problems we split the possibilities to make good building
art. Alvar Aalto
Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness.
Frank Gehry
Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a
particular purpose. Charles Eames
There will never be great architects or great architecture without great patrons.
Edwin Lutyens
Architecture is basically a container of something. I hope they will enjoy not so
much the teacup, but the tea. Yoshio Taniguchi
Any work of architecture which does not express serenity is a mistake. Luis
Barragn
When we build, let us think that we build for ever. John Ruskin
When Im working on a problem, I never think about beauty. But when Ive
finished, if the solution is not beautiful I know its wrong. Buckminster Fuller
As an architect you design for the present, with an awareness of the past, for a
future which is essentially unknown. Norman Foster
Form follows profit is the aesthetic principle of our times. Richard Rogers
Architecture is not based on concrete and steel and the elements of the soil. Its
based on wonder. Daniel Libeskind
To provide meaningful architecture is not to parody history but to articulate it.
Daniel Libeskind
Action is the foundational key to all success. Pablo Picasso
A great building must begin with the immeasurable, must go through measurable
means when it is being designed, and in the end must be unmeasured. Louis
Kahn
In reality some images or drawings have a greater impact than many buildings
that are built. Emilio Ambasz
Form ever follows function. Louis Henry Sullivan
A museum is a place where one should lose ones head. Renzo Piano
Very often the opinion of the clients must be disregarded in their own interest.
John M. Johansen
I would like my architecture to inspire people to use their own resources, to move
into the future. Tadao Ando
It is not easy to do something good, but it is extremely difficult to do something
bad. Charles Eames
Architects spend an entire life with this unreasonable idea that you can fight
against gravity. Renzo Piano
To create, one must first question everything. Eileen Gray
Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in
the light. Le Corbusier
There is a danger when every building has to look spectacular, to look like it is
changing the world. I dont care how a building looks if it means something, not to
architects, but to the people who use it. David Chipperfield
Each new situation requires a new architecture. Jean Nouvel
The architecture we remember is that which never consoles or comforts us.
Peter Eisenman
If a building becomes architecture, then it is art. Arne Jacobsen
Prose is architecture, not interior decoration. Ernest Hemingway
The job of buildings is to improve human relations: architecture must ease them,
not make them worse. Ralph Erskine
Architecture is really about well-being. I think that people want to feel good in a
space On the one hand its about shelter, but its also about pleasure. Zaha
Hadid
A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe and 50 times: It is a
beautiful catastrophe. Le Corbusier
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Leonardo da Vinci
Architecture begins where engineering ends. Walter Gropius
There are 360 degrees, so why stick to one? Zaha Hadid
I dont divide architecture, landscape and gardening; to me they are one. Luis
Barragn
I dont know why people hire architects and then tell them what to do. Frank
Gehry
To me the drawn language is a very revealing language: one can see in a few
lines whether a man is really an architect. Eero Saarinen
I am trying to counter the fixity of architectures, their stolidity, with elements that
give an ineffable immaterial quality. Toyo Ito
We do not create the work. I believe we, in fact, are discoverers. Glenn
Murcutt
Architecture is not about space but about time. Vito Acconci
One of the great beauties of architecture is that each time, it is like life starting all
over again. Renzo Piano
People who build their own home tend to be very courageous. These people are
curious about life. Theyre thinking about what it means to live in a house, rather
than just buying a commodity and making it work. Tom Kundig
When I am asked what I believe in, I say that I believe in architecture.
Architecture is the mother of the arts. I like to believe that architecture connects the
present with the past and the tangible with the intangible. Richard Meier
I like ruins because what remains is not the total design, but the clarity of
thought, the naked structure, the spirit of the thing. Tadao Ando
The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no
soul of our own civilization. Frank Lloyd Wright
I love paper. A nice thick pile of it and a pencil, and Im content. Cecil
Balmond
I believe in the near future we will 3D print our buildings and houses. Neri
Oxman
Inconsistency itself breeds vitality. Kenzo Tange
Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space. Mies van der Rohe
Architecture arouses sentiments in man. The architects task therefore, is to make
those sentiments more precise. Adolf Loos
The Sun does not realise how wonderful it is until after a room is made. Louis
Kahn
Whenever I draw a circle, I immediately want to step out of it. Buckminster
Fuller
I always try to think in curves. Greg Lynn
Designs of purely arbitrary nature cannot be expected to last long. Kenzo
Tange
Question everything generally thought to be obvious. Dieter Rams
Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because,
and only when, they are created by everybody. Jane Jacobs
My work is not about form follows function, but form follows beauty or, even
better, form follows feminine. Oscar Niemeyer
The greatest architectural illusion is not Baroque fancy or Victorian flamboyant
but minimalism. Kevin McCloud
Buildings should be good neighbours. Paul Thiry
We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us. Winston Churchill