Wassthat

Design Quotes

Bob Borson —  December 1, 2010 — 10 Comments

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Every now and then you need something to pick you up, distract you from the blank page, and let you know that everything is okay and that you are awesome (not necessarily in that order). Here are 25  of my most favorite design related quotes that just might do the trick. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

“I hate vacations. If you can build buildings, why sit on the beach?”  - Philip Johnson

“Early in life, I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasions to change.”  - Frank Lloyd Wright

“God is in the details.”  - Mies van der Rohe

“Architecture is the art of how to waste space.”  - Philip Johnson

“Form ever follows function.”  - Louis Sullivan

“Architects today tend to depreciate themselves, to regard themselves as no more than just ordinary citizens without the power to reform the future.”  - Kenzo Tange

“Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space.”  - Mies van der Rohe

“Our time is so specialized that we have people who know more and more or less and less.”  - Alvar Aalto

“A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe and 50 times: It is a beautiful catastrophe.”  - Le Corbusier

“Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design.”  - Charles Eames

“Architecture begins where engineering ends.” – Walter Gropius

“No architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.”  - John Ruskin

“Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light.”  - Le Corbusier

“An idea is salvation by imagination.”  - Frank Lloyd Wright

“To create architecture is to put in order. Put what in order? Function and objects.”  - Le Corbusier

“But the building’s identity resided in the ornament.”  - Louis Sullivan

“Less is more.”  - Mies van der Rohe

“It was the spirit animating the mass and flowing from it, and it expressed the individuality of the building.”  - Louis Sullivan

“Not many architects have the luxury to reject significant things.”  - Rem Koolhaus

“A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.”  - Frank Lloyd Wright

“You’ve got to bumble forward into the unknown.”  - Frank Gehry

“I don’t want to be interesting. I want to be good.”  - Mies van der Rohe

“Nothing is as dangerous in architecture as dealing with separated problems. If we split life into separated problems we split the possibilities to make good building art.”  - Alvar Aalto

“Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness.”  - Frank Gehry

“Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose.”  - Charles Eames

“There will never be great architects or great architecture without great patrons.”  - Edwin Lutyens

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Here’s to having a great day and thank you for reading

Life of an Architect

 I really do appreciate you.

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Bob Borson

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Dallas architect who specializes in modern design. I'm AIA, Leed AP, NCARB certified, and previous Dallas AIA Young Architect of the Year (2009).
  • Luxnleon

    Thank you !

  • Mike Gorrell

    Excellent collection Bob! This is now set as my desktop wallpaper.

  • Pingback: All-Nighter News: Home Is Where the Heart Is « Off the Mall

  • McgeeArch

    You missed this one from FLW:
    Doctors can bury their mistakes. Architects can only plant vines.

    • Anonymous

      That is a good one but I didn’t really miss it. I made this one post into two after my wife suggested that 50 quotes was too long. I chopped it in half and the quote your are referencing is a headliner of part 2.

      Next time I am really tired from … ahem … a late night “charretting” you will get it delivered hot and steaming into your email account. You do subscribe right?

      • McGeeArch

        I do now. :)

  • http://www.wood-and-light.com David Mathias

    Interesting that Louis Sullivan said both “Form ever follows function.” and “But the building’s identity resided in the ornament.” Isn’t the former sometimes incorporated into minimalist arguments against ornament? And couldn’t the latter be interpreted as a refutation of that argument?

    • Anonymous

      Honestly I believe you are over-thinking it. Form following function is about setting priorities, it doesn’t mean the removal of ornament. For some, including myself, it just means don’t put the cart before the horse. minimalists will tell you that it is superfluous ornamentation that needs to be eliminated. Whether or not you think some of the work of Louis Sullivan has more ornamentation than is absolutely required is a matter of going back to the objectives and determining is the priorities were set properly. Louis Sullivan has earned scoreboard on some of these projects.

      The Chicago Museum has a great piece on Louis Sullivan and ornamentation – http://www.chicagohistory.org/sullivan150/about/ornament.php

      • McGeeArch

        http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louissullivanfilm.com%2F&h=12873

        I’m not involved with the guy that made this film at all. But as an Architect it shows some great stuff that Sullivan did. I have to agree with you Bob. Nothing wrong with ornamentation at all.

      • http://www.wood-and-light.com David Mathias

        I’m not a mimimalist — nor am I expert on such thinking — but I think I’ve seen the “form follows function” idea used to support their thesis. So I thought it was interesting that they quote someone who also said (or wrote) that ornament can determine a building’s identity. You are well aware of my architectural tastes — I’m a big fan of restrained ornament. Even beaucoup d’ornament is OK in the right context (in my humble opinion).

        Anyway, I enjoyed your post and am looking forward to part deux.