FAMOUS ARCHITECTS’ DICTUMS

ARCHITECT DICTUM

LOIUS SULLIVAN  “Form follows function.”

 “What the people are within, the building express without.”

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT  “Form follows function, that has been misunderstood. form
and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”

 “Every great architect is – necessarily – a great poet. He must

be a great original interpreter of his time, day, and age.”

 “Architecture is organic.”
 “I believe in God. I only spell it in nature.”

 “Less is only more, where more is good.”

LUDWIG MIES VAN DER  “Less is more.”

ROHE  “Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space.”

 “God is in the details.”

 “Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks

together. There it begins.”

FRANK GEHRY  “Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn

for timelessness.”

ANTONIO GAUDI  “Form does not necessarily follow function.”

 “The straight lines belong to men, the curved one belong to

God.”

WALTER GROPIUS  “Architecture begins where engineering ends.”

 art and architecture, the new unity

MARCEL BREUER  “Structure is not just a means to a solution. It is also a

principle and a passion.”

 “Modern architecture is not a style, it's an attitude.”

 “A building has straight geometrical lines.”
 “Architecture is a social art.”
 “Nature and architecture are two different things.”
 FAMOUS ARCHITECTS’ DICTUMS
LE CORBUSIER  “A house is a machine to live in.”
 “Cube within a cube.”

 “Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent,

of forms assembled in the light.”

EERO SAARINEN  “Function influence but does not dictate form.”

ELIEL SAARINEN  “Beauty grows from necessity not from repetition of

formulas.”

 “Architectural form equals social form.”

LOUIS KHAN  “The sun does not realize how wonderful it is until after a
room is made.”

 “A house is a house.”

 “Architecture is reaching out for the truth.”

PHILIP JOHNSON  “Architecture is the art of how to waste space.”

 “All architects want to live beyond their deaths.”

 “I hate vacations, if you can build a building, why not sit on a

beach?”

MARCUS VITRUVIUS  “Architecture must meet three requirements: strength,

POLLIO utility, and beauty.”

KENZO TANGE  “Modern architecture need not to be western.”

 “The city must be subject to growth, decay, and renewal.”

ADOLF LOOS  “Supply and demand regulate architecture form.”

 “Ornamentation is a crime and all ornamentation must be

rejected.”

ROBERT VENTURI  “Less is a bore.”

 “More is more.”
 “Modernism is about space. Post modernism is about
communication. You should do what turns you on.”
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ROBERT MALLIART  “A bridge is like a house.”

ROBERT SULLIVAN  “Good architecture is like a good therapy session, good

marriage, good poem – gently and almost invisibly allowing

you to be you, as flawed and beautiful as you are.”

RICHARD ROGERS  “Architecture is always political.”

 “Architecture is a place for all people.”
 “Form follows profit is the aesthetic of our time.”

DANIEL BURNHAM  “Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering
that noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die.”
 “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s

blood.”

AUGUSTE PERRET  “Truth is indispensable to Architecture and architectural lie

concepts.”

OSCAR NIEMEYER  “Form follows beauty.”

 “Form follows feminine.”

 “Architecture is invention.”

ZAHA HADID  “There are 360 degrees, so why stick to one?”

DANIEL LIBESKIND  “Architecture is not based on concrete and steel, and the
elements of the soil. It’s based on wonder.”

WINSTON CHURCHILL  “We shape our buildings; therefore, they shape us.”

ERICH MENDELSOHN  “Architecture seizes upon space, encompasses space and is

space itself.”
 “Architecture depends on the sensuous seizure by means of

touch and sight.”

BUCKMINSTER FULLER  “Doing more with less.”

 “We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.”

I.M. PEI  “Life is architecture and architecture is the mirror of life.”

 FAMOUS ARCHITECTS’ DICTUMS
REM KHOOLAS  “Architecture is a dangerous mix of power and importance.”

RENZO PIANO  “Architects spend an entire life with this unreasonable idea

that you can fight against gravity.”

SANTIAGO CALATRAVA  “The architect brings a sense of creativity to each building.”

LUIS BARRAGAN  “Any work of architecture that does not express serenity is a
mistake.”

NORMAN FOSTER  “As an architect you design for the present, with an
awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially

unknown.”
 “Architecture is an expression of values.”

EILEEN GRAY  “To create, one must first question everything.”

YOSHIO TANIGUCHI  “Architecture is basically a container of something. I hope

they will enjoy not so much the teacup, but the tea.”

TADAO ANDO  “I believe the way people live can be directed by a little

architecture.”

KAZUYO SEJIMA  “You always need to think how a building will look besides
its neighbors.”

TOYO ITO  “I think architecture is a piece of clothing to wrap around

human beings.”

SHIGERU BAN  “I believe the material doesn’t need to be strong to build a

strong structure. The strength of structure has nothing to do
with the strength of the material.”

WANG SHU  “Architecture is spontaneous for the simple reason that

architecture is a matter of everyday life.”

FRANCIS KERE  “If we learn to build with local materials, we have a future.”
 “Architecture is about people.”
 FAMOUS ARCHITECTS’ DICTUMS
CHARLES EAMES  “Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design.”

ALVARO 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.”

VICTOR HUGO  “Architecture has recorded the great ideas of human race.
Not only every religious symbol, but every human thought
has its page in that vast book.”

MICHEAL GRAVES  “In any architecture, there is an equity between the

pragmatic function and the symbolic function.”

RICHARD NEUTRA  "A house is like a flower pot"

"Architect must have a razor-shape send of individuality."

RICHARD MEIER  “The responsibility of an architect is to create a sense of

order, a sense of place, and a sense of relationship.

PETER ZUMTHOR  “I believe that architecture today needs to reflect on the

tasks and possibilities which are inherently its own.

Architecture is not a vehicle or a symbol for things that do

not belong to its essence.”

JEAN NOUVEL  “Each new situation requires a new architecture.”

“I think architecture has to be a gift.”

ALVARO SIZA  “Tradition is a challenge to innovation.”

“Every design, is a rigorous attempt to capture a concrete

moment of a transitory image in all its nuances. The extent

to which this transitory quality is captured, is reflected in the

designs: the more precise they are, the more vulnerable.”

PIER LUIGI NERVI  “Structural correctness, which is identical with functional,

technical and economic is necessary and sufficient condition
of satisfactory aesthetic result.”