Architect Quotes

America has always imported history.

A building is hard to judge. It takes many years to find out whether it works. It's not as simple as asking the people in the office whether they like it.

Sometimes I have to accept a job I don't really want. Hardly anybody comes up to you with a commission; it's all competitions these days.

Higher ceilings allow the use indirect lighting, which is much healthier and reduces glare.

Every building is a prototype. No two are alike.

A city building, you experience when you walk; a suburban building, you experience when you drive.

I think the younger generation, the people poised to dominate the workforce, are more socially conscious. They are more demanding in terms of environment and how that environment contributes to their life.

A good engineer thinks in reverse and asks himself about the stylistic consequences of the components and systems he proposes.

When I travel, I draw and paint sketches which is great fun. And as long as you are fully aware that it has nothing to do with actual art, I think that's all right.

There is always a point when one senses one's lack of skill, the doubt.

The primary factor is proportions.

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.

People buy a chair, and they don't really care who designed it.

On the other hand, I don't understand the enthusiasm for everything in the antique shop that Grandma threw out. There, the sense of quality has declined; otherwise Grandma wouldn't have thrown it out.

In addressing a task, one almost always has several possible options, sometimes only a few, and they may all be practical and functional. But they lack the aesthetic aspect that raises it to architecture.

In a way, the sense of quality has improved, the status symbol of the small things is gone, and it is acceptable to use stainless steel, even if the neighbour uses silver.

If architecture had nothing to do with art, it would be astonishingly easy to build houses, but the architect's task - his most difficult task - is always that of selecting.

I have no philosophy, my favourite thing is sitting in the studio.

I don't see that any buildings should be excluded from the term architecture, as long as they are done properly.

I do not feel certain until I have confronted my initial solution with other solutions - although in fact the first solution often proves to be the right one.

I am going to be working on bathroom fittings for a company in the USA, and then I thought it was appropriate to simplify the fittings and, thus, lowering the cost.

Furniture manufacturing in plastics requires very costly machinery, which the Danish market is not big enough to justify. Or so they say. But show me a plastics manufacturer who dares to take on the experiment.

Besides, I think that when one has been through a boarding school, especially then, you have some resistance, because it was both fine comradeship and a fairly hard training.

And when an architect has designed a house with large windows, which is a necessity today in order to pull the daylight into these very deep houses, then curtains come to play a big role in architecture.

Almost every time I make a building, some people will condemn it straight to Hell.

You will soon find that I am a bit obsessive about my work. And that is a little sad, one often feels strangely restricted, not finding time to simmer, although one actually has many interests.

That is the artistic task: To choose the best from these solutions.

That business of relaxation, which is so terribly modern today, is all good and well, but my work interests me so much, and is so varied, that many times it seems relaxing when I go from one aspect to another.

If a building becomes architecture, then it is art.

Architecture tends to consume everything else, it has become one's entire life.