Quotes About Architecture

We require from buildings two kinds of goodness: first, the doing their practical duty well: then that they be graceful and pleasing in doing it.

In the West there has always been the attempt to try make the religious building, whether it's a Medieval or Renaissance church, an eternal object for the celebration of God. The material chosen, such as stone, brick, or concrete, is meant to eternally preserve what is inside.

The Frank Matcham theaters in the West End in particular are incredible pieces of architecture.

The intellectual force of the West is still dominant, but other cultures are getting stronger. I expect that we will develop a new way of thinking in architecture and urban planning, and that less will be based on our models.

If you're into architecture and you're from the West, everything is hors d'oeuvres for working to rebuild the Temple. Ultimately you're led there. You can't escape it.

Spiritual space is lost in gaining convenience. I saw the need to create a mixture of Japanese spiritual culture and modern western architecture.

Borne out of this, starting around the 17th Century was the Baroque era. It is my view that it is one of the architectural peak periods in western civilisation.

I came, I studied architecture in America, so my technical background's completely western. But my seventeen years, the formative years of one's life, and I can't say that the Chineseness in me is not there.

Since I am a Japanese man who's been building through the experience of Japanese architecture, my actual designs come from Japanese architectural concepts, although they're based on Western methods and materials.

The center of Western culture is Greece, and we have never lost our ties with the architectural concepts of that ancient civilization.

Information and inspiration are everywhere... history, art, architecture, everything an illustrator needs. Europe is, after all, the land that has generated most of the enduring myths and legends of Western culture.

The new Powerhouse in Parramatta will be bigger and better than anything this state has seen.

Prague is a dark place.

I like Prague, it's strange. All the houses you see look like Disney sets, with their bright colours.

The world of sculpture precedes by many years the world of architecture.

Inherent in architecture, it involves everything in life so that there is absolutely no end to it. By the time you're seventy or eighty, you're still beginning. So, that's the kind of life I've preferred to being the expert at forty and dead, you know.

In Paris, there has to be a presence. History becomes the most interesting when it's compared to the present. I mean there's a whole group of people that want to build new buildings that look like old buildings.

In Japan, there is less a culture of preserving old buildings than in Europe.

Chicago is a pretty good town.

There's a very mathematical, mechanical side to architecture, and I probably lean more toward that aspect of it, though I'm terrible at numbers. But that side appeals to me more than the decorating aspect.

When I was young and used to look at Chinese architecture, there was no clear definition between what was landscaping and what was architecture.

I don't separate architecture, design, or culture. What's more important is a language of creativity that carries meaning.

I have designed the most buildings of any living American architect.

It's time architects start designing for our ears as well as our eyes.