It may sound affected - but it is the act of creation itself, and it is equally exhilarating whether one is working on a teaspoon or a national bank.

No wonder the film industry started in the desert in California where, like all desert dwellers, they dream their buildings, rather than design them.

Architecture can't force people to connect, it can only plan the crossing points, remove barriers, and make the meeting places useful and attractive.

I didn't want to think about a project that I couldn't finish. That's a kind of temptation. One has to realize one's limitations. Why kid yourself? 

Architecture never derived its force from stability of culture, but rather from the expression of those moments when that sense of stability slipped.

The Alessi relationship and the Target one has broadened the role of architects in society and broadened the concept that design belongs to everyone.

I see architecture not as Gropius did, as a moral venture, as truth, but as invention, in the same way that poetry or music or painting is invention.

The French use gardens to show grandeur and the English to show how things have endured for hundreds of years, but for me, they're all about fantasy.

We felt it was very important for an entity like CCTV to make its presence felt... To generate a space and to define a space, that is the main thing.

I think all good architecture should challenge you, make you start asking questions. You don't have to understand it. You may not like it. That's OK.

I enjoy working with people. I understand that as a necessity. And clearly that's something that develops as you get older. And I've grown into that.

I think it's good if areas get upgraded and gentrified, as long as the people who always lived there can stay. But they get pushed out to some place.

We should concentrate our work not only to a separated housing problem but housing involved in our daily work and all the other functions of the city.

Originality consists of returning to the origin. Thus, originality means returning, through one's resources, to the simplicity of the early solutions.

I always look forward to the next project. That is one of the wonderful things about architecture - you always can hope for another project to design.

When I started designing in school, I discovered that I had a knack for it. I fell completely in love with architecture, and I remain in love with it.

I'm inspired by a lot of stuff. I always was interested in sculpture and painting and music and literature and all those things. There's no one thing.

I'm preprogrammed emotionally and intellectually not to go down blind alleys. I don't waste the time. I automatically edit out whatever's impractical.

A 60-story tower in New York evokes a 70-story tower in Chicago [and] a 60-story tower in New York evokes a 70-story tower directly across the street.

Theater publicly reveals the human condition through appealing to both intellect and emotion. Architecture, whether lowly or exalted, can do the same.

I cannot work and listen to Wagner at the same time, nor Mahler, nor Beethoven's late quartets. I enjoy listening to Chopin's piano music when I work.

What finally is beauty? Certainly nothing that can be calculated or measured. It is always something imponderable, something that lies between things.

Architecture is a art when one consciously or unconsciously creates aesthetic emotion in the atmosphere and when this environment produces well being.

Urban design as a discipline barely exists in most American and Canadian cities. In Singapore, there are innovative transportation strategies at work.

I always say African American history is the quintessential American story. It's about perseverance and resilience - something everyone can relate to.

We must progress to the stage of doing all the right things for all the right reasons instead of doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons.

Cities depend on a healthy mix of uses and people for their vitality. As a pre-eminent world city, London is a magnet to people from across the globe.

The very essence of architecture consists of a variety and development reminiscent of natural organic life. This is the only true style in architecture

It's a fault line where the flotsam and energy that washes up from the Pacific collides with all of urban America crashing in from the other direction.

The legendary tumbleweed is really a nurse crop that protects the growth of prairie grasses under its shade, and then sacrifices itself and blows away.

I plead for conservation of human culture, which is much more fragile than nature herself. We needn't destroy other cultures with the force of our own.

There is a single thread of attitude, a single direction of flow, that joins our present time to it's early burgeoning in Mediterranean civilization...

I make a project and I panic. Which is good, it can be a method. First, panic. Second, conquer panic by working. Third, find ways to solve your doubts.

When I was young, all we ever heard about was functionalism, functionalism, functionalism. It’s not enough. Design should also be sensual and exciting.

The Pyramids are perfect, but you can't put the Pyramids in the middle of Manhattan. In the desert, the combination of light and form makes it perfect.

How precious a book is in light of the offering, in the light of the one who has the privilege of this offering. The library tells you of this offering

Our utilitarian structures will mature into architecture only when, through their fulfillment of function, they become carriers of the will of the age.

Modern buildings of our time are so huge that one must group them. Often the space between these buildings is as important as the buildings themselves.

All space must be attached to a value, to a public dimension. There is no private space. The only private space that you can imagine is the human mind.

I guess I can't be a great architect. Great architects have a recognizable style. But if every building I did were the same, it would be pretty boring.

With the opening of the second decade of the twentieth century it seemed that the stage was set for the last act in an unquestioned evolutionary drama.

Architects work in two ways. One is to respond precisely to a client's needs or demands. Another is to look at what the client asks and reinterpret it.

A greater focus on design in all new homes would make the best use of land, create homes and public spaces, and reinforce the structures of urban life.

The very essence of architecture consists of a variety and development reminiscent of natural organic life. This is the only true style in architecture.

Architecture should have little to do with problem solving - rather it should create desirable conditions and opportunities hitherto thought impossible.

You have to think of a restaurant as a series of impressions. But what makes my job so great is there's no one answer that's right for every restaurant.

When I was a kid, my father didn't really have much hope for me. He thought I was a dreamer; he didn't think I would amount to anything. My mother also.

At home, I have a wife, fortunately, and my children are all grown, and I have many grandchildren. I spend weekends with my grandchildren; I adore them.

Architecture is a political act, by nature. It has to do with the relationships between people and how they decide to change their conditions of living.

How precious a book is in light of the offering, in the light of the one who has the privilege of this offering. The library tells you of this offering.

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