In honor of the master's 82nd birthday, which he celebrates on September 14, PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA decided to collect 15 of his best quotes about architecture and the profession of an architect.
Center Pompidou, Paris, France
To some extent, I spend my whole life stealing everything - from the past, from the cities I love, from the place where I grew up - I grab things, not only from architecture, but also from Italy, art, literature, poetry, music
Jean-Marie Tjibau Cultural Center, Noumea, New Caledonia
There is something about being completely committed to your profession. In Italian, obsession is not necessarily negative. It is the art of putting all your energy into one thing; it's the art of turning even what you eat for lunch into architecture
Banca Popolare di Lodi, Lodi, Italy
Architects should live 150 years because they have to study for the first 75 years
NEMO Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
As an architect, you must accept the fact that you will be subject to criticism. Architecture should not rely on complete harmony
Maison Hermès, Tokyo, Japan
Architects must dream. We must seek our Atlantises, be explorers, adventurers, and at the same time build responsibly and well
P&C Department Store, Cologne, Germany
An architect cannot be so arrogant as to claim that he is 100% sure of what he is doing
Paul Klee Center, Bern, Switzerland
builder — like a little god: someone who does something, not just draws
The New York Times Building, New York, USA
One of one of the greatest charms of architecture is that every time life seems to start anew
The Shard, London, Great Britain
Architecture is science, it is technology, it is geography, it is printing, it is anthropology, it is sociology, it is art, it is history. It all comes together. Architecture is a kind of prefab hodgepodge, an incredible hodgepodge. And, by the way, architecture is also a very "dirty" art - in the sense that it is polluted by life and the complexity of things
Museo delle Scienze, Trento, Italy
You can put down a bad book, you can ignore bad music, but you can't ignore the ugly tower opposite your house
Renovation and expansion of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, USA
Architects spend their whole lives with the unfounded idea that gravity can be defied
Gallery of Harvard Art Museums Renovation and Expansion, Cambridge, USA
When a person is dissatisfied with the house he lives in, he becomes an architect
Astrup-Fernley Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway
Cities are beautiful because they appear slowly, they are created by time. The city is born from the confusion of monuments and infrastructure, culture and market, national history and everyday events. It takes 500 years to create a city, 50 years to create a district
Fondation Seydoux-Pathé, Paris, France
If you have complete freedom, then you have a problem. It is much better when you have some obligations, discipline, rules. When you have no rules, you start making your own rules
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Los Angeles, USA
An architect is a builder. Of course, he is more than a builder. He must be a fighter, he must be a poet, he must be a seer, he must be an artist. But, of course, he must be a builder. Everything starts with this
See also:
Daniel Libeskind. 17 words of architectural inspiration
