A modern, harmonic and lively architecture is the visible sign of authentic democracy.
Layering and changeability: this is the key, the combination that is worked into most of my buildings. Occupying one of these buildings is like sailing a yacht; you modify and manipulate its form and skin according to seasonal conditions and natural elements, and work with these to maximize the performance of the building.
All architecture, which does not express serenity, fails in its spiritual mission. Thus, it has been a mistake to abandon the shelter of walls for the inclemency of large areas of glass.
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.
The principle of the Gothic architecture is infinity made imaginable.
To me, a building - if it's beautiful - is the love of one man, he's made it out of his love for space, materials, things like that.
Nothing requires the architect's care more than the due proportions of buildings.
We build buildings which are terribly restless. And buildings don't go anywhere. They shouldn't be restless.
The interior of the house personifies the private world; the exterior of it is part of the outside world.
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.
Cities are the greatest creations of humanity.
My buildings will be my legacy... they will speak for me long after I'm gone.
No architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.
Where do architects and designers get their ideas? The answer, of course, is mainly from other architects and designers, so is it mere casuistry to distinguish between tradition and plagiarism?
In architecture as in all other operative arts, the end must direct the operation. The end is to build well. Well building has three conditions: Commodity, Firmness and Delight.
Architecture is politics.
A tranquil city of good laws, fine architecture, and clean streets is like a classroom of obedient dullards, or a field of gelded bulls - whereas a city of anarchy is a city of promise.
While a great many other ideas and measures are of prime importance for the good life of the community, that which concerns its architectural expression is the notion of the community as limited in numbers, and in area... To express these relations clearly, to embody them in buildings and roads and gardens in which each individual structure will be subordinated to the whole - this is the end of community planning.
I viewed the station as a place, a terrain where I could put a new architecture in place. The station was, of course, an historic monument, but it does not deserve all the respect given it when it is said it is perfect, original and coherent expression of a past that we must revere. Orsay is basically a box.
The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert... I don't live inside buildings because buildings are dead places where nothing grows, where water doesn't flow, and where life stops. I don't want to live in a dead place. People say that I don't live in a real world, but it's modern Americans who live in a fake world, because they have stepped outside the natural circle of life.
If there's going to be another movement, another direction in architecture, it has to engage people differently. Other than saying, here, look at this, isn't this amazing? It has to interactively involve them other than as spectators ... it has to engage them as creators.
I've always been interested in the idea of the artificial landscape. Reforming the landscape. Architecture being a method of reforming the earth's surface.
I think, you know, architecture should not just be something that follows up on events but be a leader of events ... by implementing an architectural action, you actually are making a transformation in the social fabric and in the political fabric. Architecture becomes an instigator.
A lot of my work is about questioning the stability and permanence of architecture, and, in turn, the stability of society.
If there is no idea in the drawing, there is no idea in the constructed project. That's the expression of the idea. Architects make drawings that other people build. I make the drawings. If someone wants to build from those, that's up to them. I feel I'm making architecture. I believe the building comes into being as soon as it's drawn.
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