Building Functionality Quotes

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

A building has integrity, just as a man and just as seldom! It must be true to its own idea, have its own form, and serve its own purpose!

I design for the use of a building and the place and for the people who use it... the reputation for arrogance comes because when work is offered to me, I look whether I can find a genuine interest in quality.

We must be as familiar with the functions of our building as with our materials. We must learn what a building can be, what it should be, and also what it must not be.

Cut out doors and windows for the house. The holes make it useful.

Mies van der Rohe's architecture and modern architecture in general suffered from not only being repetitive, but not explaining to the populous what the different rooms were for.

The difference between good and bad architecture is the time you spend on it.

Architecture begins where engineering ends.

Architects in the past have tended to concentrate their attention on the building as a static object. I believe dynamics are more important: the dynamics of people, their interaction with spaces and environmental condition.

I think that the point of being an architect is to help raise the experience of everyday living, even a little. Putting a window where people would really like one. Making sure a shaving mirror in a hotel bathroom is at the right angle. Making bureaucratic buildings that are somehow cheerful.

I've always seen architecture as a healing art, not just as a beautification art.

In architecture the idea degenerated. Design allows a more direct and pleasurable route.

Working off one genius sketch is not the way great architecture should be made.

The space within becomes the reality of the building.

For me, architecture is an art the same as painting is an art or sculpture is an art. Yet, architecture moves a step beyond painting and sculpture because it is more than using materials. Architecture responds to functional outputs and environmental factors. Yet, fundamentally, it is important for me to stress the art in architecture to bring harmony.

Critics are entitled to have an opinion, but how can they judge how comfortable a building is? No critic is smart enough to judge how a building will perform over time.

Normally, architects render a service. They implement what other people want. This is not what I do. I like to develop the use of the building together with the client, in a process, so that as we go along we become more intelligent.

You have to accept as an architect to be exposed to criticism. Architecture should not rely on full harmony.

I think of what the experience is of going into the building, of spending time in it, and try to get a sense of what the building would be like to work in as well.