Architects Dictums

PHILIP JOHNSON
“All architects want to live beyond their

deaths.”
“Architecture is the art of how to waste

space.”
KENZO TANGE
“The city must be subject to growth, decay

and renewal.”
“Architects today tend to depreciate

themselves, to regard themselves as no
more than just ordinary citizens without the
power to reform the future.”
OSCAR NIEMEYER
"Form follows beauty."
“Architecture will always express the

technical and social progress of the country
in which it is carried out. If we wish to give
it the human content that it lacks, we must
participate in the political struggle.”
FRANK GEHRY
“Look, architecture has a lot of places to
hide behind, a lot of excuses, The client
made me do this. The city made me do this.
Oh, the budget. I don't believe that
anymore.”
“Architecture should speak of its time and

place, but yearn for timelessness”
ROBERT VENTURI
“Forms accommodates function.”
“Less is bore.”
Unity disguised as chaos- complexity and

contradiction are often what make works of
art both exciting and profound
TADAO ANDO
“I would like my architecture to inspire
people to use their own resources, to move
into the future.”
“Without this spirit, Modernist architecture
cannot fully exist. Since there is often a
mismatch between the logic and the spirit
of Modernism, I use architecture to
reconcile the two.”
RENZO PIANO
“architects spend an entire life with this

unreasonable idea that you can fight against
gravity.”
JEAN NOUVEL
“Each new situation requires a new

architecture.”
“I think architecture has to be a gift.”

ALVAR AALTO
“Nothing is as dangerous in architecture as

dealing with separated problems. If we split
life into separated problem we split the
possibilities to make good building art.”
ADOLF LOOS
“Does it follow that the house has nothing
in common with art and is architecture not
to be included in the arts? Only a very small
part of architecture belongs to art: the
tomb and the monument. Everything else
that fulfills a function is to be excluded from
the domain of art”
ADOLF LOOS
“Ornament is a crime and all ornamentation

must be rejected”
"ornament equals crime"
"lift the building in the ground"

ANTONIO GAUDI
“Form does not necessarily follow function.”

AUGUSTE PERRET
"Truth is indispensible to Architecture &

architectural lie concepts."
BENJAMIN H. LATROBE
"A bldg. is the combination of different

geometric figures."
BUCKMINSTER FULLER
"We called architects of the future not its

victims"
"Starting with holes"

EDUARDO SOUTO DE MOURA
“Drawing architecture is a schizoid act: it

involves reducing the world into a piece of
paper.”
EERO SAARINEN
“Function influence but does not dictate

form”
ELIEL SAARINEN
“Architecture - form equals social-form”
"Beauty grows from necessity not from

repetition of formulas."
ERICH MENDELSOHN
"Architecture seizes upon space,
encompasses space and is space itself."
"Architecture depends on the sensuous

seizure by means of touch and sight."
DANIEL BURNHAM
“Make big plans; aim high in hope and hope
and work, remembering that a noble, logical
diagram once recorded will not die.”
“Make no little plans; they have no magic to

stir mens blood.”
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
“Every great architect is necessarily - a great
poet. He must be a great original interpreter
of his time, his day, his age.”
“form and function are one"

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
“The longer I live the more beautiful life
becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you
will soon find yourself without it. Your life
will be impoverished. But if you invest in
beauty, it will remain with you all the day of
your life.”
“An idea is salvation by imagination.”

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
“Think simples as my old master used to say

- meaning reduce the whole of its parts into
the simplest terms, getting back to first
principles.”
“An idea is salvation by imagination.”

JOHN RUSKIN
“It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is

nevertheless a most important truth, that
no architecture can be truly noble which is
not imperfect.”
JOHN RUSKIN
“It is impossible, as impossible as to raise
the dead, to restore anything that has ever
been great or beautiful in architecture. That
which I have insisted upon as the life of the
whole, that spirit which is given only by the
hand and eye of the workman, can never be
recalled.”
LE CORBUSIER
“The house is a machine for living in.”
“Architecture or Revolution”
“the exterior of the building is the result of

the interior.”
LOUIS KAHN
“Architecture is the reaching out for the
truth.”
“Every time a student walks past and really
urgent, expressive piece of architecture that
belongs to his college, it can help reassure
him that he does have that mind, does have
that soul.”
LOUIS KAHN
"A house is a house."

LOUIS SULLIVAN
“Forms follows function”

LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE
“Less is more.”
“Architecture is the will of an epoch

translated into space”
“God is in the details.”

“It is better to be good than to be original.”
“Less is more, almost”

LUCIO COSTA
“I am neither a capitalist nor a socialist, I am
not a religious or an atheist.”
“Each one sees whatever he wishes to see”

MARCEL LAJOS BREUER
“Architecture is a social art."

MARCUS VITRUVIUS POLIO
“Architecture must meet 3 requirements:
Strength, Beauty, and Utilities”
“Architecture is a science arising out of

many other sciences, and adorned with
much and varied learning; by the help of
which a judgment is formed of those works
which are the result of other arts.”
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
"the reality of a building is not the container
but the space within"
“the architect is a molder of men, whether
or not he consciously assumes
responsibility"
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
“nature spelled with a capital N the way you

spell God with a capital G"”
“organic architecture: all parts are related to

the whole as the whole was related to the
parts; continuity and integrity"
PIERRE LUIGI NERVI
"architecture is a synthesis of the
technology and art"
“structural correctness is identical with

functional, technical and economic
truthfulness”
OSCAR NIEMEYER
“architecture must have liberty of forms"
Kenzo Tange
"modern architecture need not be western"

IEOH MING PEI
"symbolisms and blasphemies"
"architecture is the expression of the past

Richard Rogers
“design is how, form is what"

OTTO WAGNER
"nothing that is not practical can be

beautiful"
"essential basis of natural forms as

geometries"
Minoru Yamasaki
"humanism"
MICHAEL GRAVES
"design as if you are a child"
classical forms language of both the

arctuated and trabeated models"
CHARLES RENEE MACKINTOSH
"modern ideas in modern dress"
"design by living men for living men"

ROBERT MAILART
“mushroom slab construction”
"a bridge is like a house"

ERICH MENDELSOHN
fluid mass theory

"architecture is the only tangible expression
of space"
EERO SAARINEN
"spiritual function is inseparable from

practical function"
"beauty grows from necessity, not from

repetition"
RICHARD NUETRA
"a house is like a flower pot"
most important material is man"

REM KOOLHAAS
"the client is chaos"
"the integration of notion of cheapness to

create sublime conditions"
OTTO WAGNER
"a town in a town"

ALVAR AALTO (Hugo Alvar Henric)
"form is the mystery that defies description

but brings people pleasure"
LE CORBUSIER (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret}
"a cube within a cube"
"architecture is the masterly, correct and

magnificent play of masses brought
together in light"
LE CORBUSIER (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret}
"space and light and order. these are the

things men need just as much they need
bread or place to sleep
"the „styles‟ are a lie"

ANTONIO GAUDI
"straight lines belong to man, curved lines

belong to God"
MARCEL BRUER
"nature and architecture are two different

things"
WALTER GROPIUS
"art and architecture, the new unity"
“machine is to be our modern medium of

design”
LOUIS KHAN
“architecture built not for need, but for art"
PAUL RUDOLPH
"automobile is the most important

organizing element in the structure
OSCAR NIEMEYER
“Architecture is invention.”
ADOLF LOOS
“Supply and demand regulate architecture

form"
"Architecture starts when you carefully put

two bricks together. There it begins."
WALTER GROPIUS
"Architecture begins where engineering

ends"
MARCEL BRUER
“A Building has straight geometrical lines.

Even when these lines are free, it must
always be evident that they have been
studied & that they did not spring up
simultaneously.”

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PHILIP JOHNSON

“All architects want to live beyond their

“Architecture is the art of how to waste

“The city must be subject to growth, decay

“Architects today tend to depreciate

"Form follows beauty."

“Architecture will always express the

“Architecture should speak of its time and

Unity disguised as chaos- complexity and

“architects spend an entire life with this

“Each new situation requires a new

“I think architecture has to be a gift.”

“Nothing is as dangerous in architecture as

“Ornament is a crime and all ornamentation

"ornament equals crime"

"lift the building in the ground"

“Form does not necessarily follow function.”

"Truth is indispensible to Architecture &

"A bldg. is the combination of different

"We called architects of the future not its

"Starting with holes"

“Drawing architecture is a schizoid act: it

“Function influence but does not dictate

“Architecture - form equals social-form”

"Beauty grows from necessity not from

"Architecture depends on the sensuous

“Make no little plans; they have no magic to

“form and function are one"

“An idea is salvation by imagination.”

“Think simples as my old master used to say

“An idea is salvation by imagination.”

“It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is

“the exterior of the building is the result of

"A house is a house."

“Forms follows function”

“Architecture is the will of an epoch

“God is in the details.”

“It is better to be good than to be original.”

“Less is more, almost”

“Each one sees whatever he wishes to see”

“Architecture is a social art."

“Architecture is a science arising out of

“nature spelled with a capital N the way you

“organic architecture: all parts are related to

“structural correctness is identical with

"modern architecture need not be western"

"symbolisms and blasphemies"

"architecture is the expression of the past

“design is how, form is what"

"nothing that is not practical can be

"essential basis of natural forms as

"design as if you are a child"

classical forms language of both the

"modern ideas in modern dress"

"design by living men for living men"

“mushroom slab construction”

"a bridge is like a house"

fluid mass theory

"spiritual function is inseparable from

"beauty grows from necessity, not from