Quotes About Design

People shouldn't really have to think about an object when they are using it. Not having to think about it makes the relationship between a person and an object run more smoothly.

Great design is a multi-layered relationship between human life and its environment.

My pre-occupation is with the relationship between objects, whether I am dealing with woods, fields or water, rocks or trees, shrubs and plants, or groups of plants.

If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.

Nothing useless can be truly beautiful.

Have nothing in your house you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.

everything made by man's hands has a form, which must be either beautiful or ugly; beautiful if it is in accord with Nature, and helps her; ugly if it is discordant with Nature, and thwarts her; it cannot be indifferent...

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful"- 1834

Let's say you're walking around and you find a watch on the ground. As you examine it, you marvel at the intricately complex interweaving of its parts, a means to an end. Surely you wouldn't think this marvel would have come about by itself. The watch must have a maker. Just as the watch has such complex means to an end, so does nature to a much greater extent. Just look at the complexity of the human eye. Thus we must conclude that nature has a maker too.

Complexity is self-generating. The diversity of our world is understandable because it is possible to design imaginary self-consistent worlds potentially as complex as our own.     This is no mere restatement of common sense. Everyone daydreams alternate worlds, but the imagination soon tires of filling in details. Ulam, Von Neumann, and Conway showed that a few recursive rules can paint in all the details. Creation can be simple.

The nation should have a tax system that looks like someone designed it on purpose.

Our schools have been scientifically designed to prevent over-education from happening. The average citizen should be content with their humble role in life.

Our schools have been scientifically designed to prevent over-education from happening. ... The average American (should be) content with their humble role in life, because they're not tempted to think about any other role.

Although building science has been taught in schools of architecture for quite some time, the knowledge and understanding it encompasses are still not part of students' and architects' cognitive framework and design intuition.

The architectural profession has struggled to develop forms of environmental accounting that can guide the design process without overly burdening or complicating it.

Laying out grounds may be considered a liberal art, in some sort like poetry and painting

Laying out grounds... may be considered as a liberal art, in some sort like poetry and painting.... it is to assist Nature in moving the affections... the affections of those who have the deepest perception of the beauty of Nature...

We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.

We shape our buildings and they shape us.

A chair is the first thing you need when you don't really need anything and is, therefore, a particularly compelling symbol of civilisation. (Attributed to Ralph Caplan)

We really are the architects of our existence, and our surroundings do reflect precisely what we have built.

The way the function dictates the form... elegant lines... nothing extraneous... this shoe perfectly expresses the essence of shoeness.

Outside of the chair, the teapot is the most ubiquitous and important design element in the domestic environment and almost everyone who has tackled the world of design has ended up designing one.