Architects Dictums with their blgd.

Design Prepared By: EDA

NO. DICTUMS DESIGN/STRUCTURES/BLDG THE ARCHITECT/ARTIST

1 “A harmonious design requires that nothing be Firmitas, Utilitas, Venustas (Durability, Usefulness, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
added or taken away.” and Beauty) (Roman Architect)
wrote “De Architectura”– 10 books of
Architecture
“Firm, Commodity, Delight”
2 “A house is a machine for living in.” •VILLA SAVOYE, Poissy (France) Le Corbusier
Charles Edouard Jeanneret-Gris
•UNITE D’ HABITATION, Marseille (Brutalism) (Swiss-French Architect)
“Architecture is the learned game, correct and (France) 5 points of Architecture

magnificent, of forms assembled in the light.” •NOTRE DAME DU HAUT (France) 1.Pilotis
2.Open Plan
“I prefer drawing to talking drawing is faster, •LA VILLE CONTEMPORAINE 3.Free Facade (Curtain Wall)

and leaves less room for lies”
“Cube within a Cube.”
“Architecture is the masterly, correct, and
magnificent play of masses brought together in
light. Our eyes are made to see forms in light:
light and shade reveal these forms.”
3 “Less is more.”
“Architecture is the will of an epoch translated
into space.”
“God is in the details.”
“Architecture is the will of an epoch translated
into space.”
“A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is
almost easier. That is why Chippendale is
famous”
4 “Less is bore.”
“More is more.”
•National Museum of Western Art (Japan) 4.Ribbon Windows
5.Roof Garden
Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe
•Farnsworth House (Plano, Illinois) (German-American Architect)
•BARCELONA PAVILION (Barcelona Chair) (Spain)
•FARNSWORTH HOUSE, Plano, Illinois “Skin & Bone”
•SEAGRAM BUILDING, NY (1958) (Skyscraper)
•S.R. CROWN HALL, Illinois Institute of Technology
•Barcelona Pavilion “Germany Pavilion” (Barcelona Spain)
•VANNA VENTURI HOUSE (Philadelphia) Robert Venturi
“Pioneer of Postmodernism”
•EPISCOPAL ACADEMY CHAPEL (Newtown Square, (American Architect)
Pennsylvania) (Author of “Complexity & development in
•CHILDREN MUSEUM OF HOUSTON Architecture”)
•FIRE STATION NO.4 (the middle finger look like bldg)
•Guild House (Philadelphia)

5 “Yes, is more.” •Mountain Dwellings Bjarke Ingels

•8 House
•Vancouver House
• Via 57 West (New York)
6 “Architecture is the art of how to waste space.” •THE GLASS HOUSE (New Canaan) (Connecticut) Philip Johnson
•AT &T BUILDING (New York) (Advocate International Style)
(Postmodernism Promoters)
•CRYSTAL CATHEDRAL (1st Pritzker Awardee 1979)
“Form follows form, Not function.” •BANK OF AMERICA
•LIPSTICK BUILDING
7 “Form Follows Function.” •CHICAGO – Birth Place of Skyscraper Louis Sullivan
•WAINRIGHT Bldg., (St. Louis, Missouri) – 1st Skyscraper “Father of Skyscrapers”
(First Modern Architect)
•PRUDENTIAL (GUARANTY) Bldg, Buffalo, (NY) (3 Levels: Base; Shaft; & Top Floor)
•CARSON PIRIE SCOTT DEPARTMENT STORE
(Sullivan Center) (Chicago)
•Auditorium Building (Chicago)

8 “The mother art is architecture. Without an Frank Lloyd Wright

architecture of our own we have no soul of our
own civilization.”
“An idea is salvation by imagination.”
“Space is the breath of art.”
“A great architect is not made by way of a brain
nearly so much as he is made by way of a
cultivated, enriched heart.”
“I Believe in God, Only I Spell It Nature.”
“Every Great Architect Is Necessarily a Great
Poet (…)”
9 “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape
us.”
•PRAIRE HOUSE (Overhanging Roofs& Flowing Forms) “The Greatest American Architect of All time”
•Winslow house “the First prairie house” (River Forest) (Promoter/Father of Organic Architecture)
Illinois)
•BROADACRE CITY (New York)
•ROBIE HOUSE (Chicago, Illinois)
•FALLING WATER (Pennsylvania)
•JHONSON WAX COMPANY ADMINISTRATION
CENTER (Racine, Wisconsin)
•Taliesin West (Racine, Wisconsin)
Winston Churchill
(Not an Architect)

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 Architects Dictums with their blgd. Design Prepared By: EDA

10 “The first principle of architectural beauty is that •Eiffel Tower (1899) (Paris, France) Gustave Eiffel
the essential lines of a construction be (French Civil Engineer)
(Best known for the World-famous Eiffel
determined by a perfect appropriateness to its Tower) (metal structural work & industrial
installations)
use.”
11 “When I am asked what I believe in, I say that I •GETTY MUSEUM (Los Angeles) Richard Meier
believe in architecture. Architecture is the •Church of God the Merciful Father (American Abstract Artist)
(Principle on pure geometry, open space, and
mother of the arts. I like to believe that an emphasis on light)
architecture connects the present with the past
and the tangible with the intangible.
12 “A museum is a place where one should lose •CENTRE POMPIDOU / GEORGE POMPIDOU Renzo Piano
one’s head.” (Paris) (w/ RICHARD ROGERS, NORMAN FOSTER) (Italian Architect)
(High-tech Pioneered)
•The New York Time Bldg (Skyscraper) (NY)
“Architecture is Art, but art vastly contaminated
•Tower Shard (Skyscraper) (London)
by many other things. Contaminated in the best
sense of the word-fed, fertilized by many
things…”
13 “The dialogue between client and architect is •15 Central Park West (New York) Robert A.M. Stern
about as intimate as any conversation you can •520 Park Avenue (New York) (New York based Architect)
(Founder partner Arch. Firm, Robert A.M
have, because when you’re talking about Stern Architects “RAMSA”)
building a house, you’re talking about dreams.”
14 “As an architect you design for the present, with •Apple Park Headquarter (most Energy-Efficient Building on Sir Norman Foster
an awareness of the past, for a future which is Earth) (80% Landscape; Collab w/ Steve Jobs) “The Hero of High-Tech”
(British Architect)
essentially unknown.” •London City Hall (1999 Pritzker Award) (High-tech Pioneered)
“Great Architect should wear its message •HSBC BUILDING (Hong Kong) (earliest example of High-Tech
Architecture)
lightly”
•30 ST. MARY AXE, “The GHERKIN” (Skyscraper)
“Architecture is an expression of values.”
•Hearst Tower (Skyscraper) (NY)

15 “Architecture begins where engineering ends.” •Bauhauss Bldg (Germany) Walter Gropius
•Fagus Factory (Germany) (German Architect)
“We want to create the purely organic building, “Founder of Bauhaus”
•Tower East (Ohio) (his last bldg) “One of the Pioneers of Modern Achitecture”
boldly emanating its inner laws, free of untruths (International Style)
or ornamentation” (Functionalism)

“Our ultimate goal, therefore, was the

composite but inseparable work of art --- the
great building --- in which the old dividing line
between monumental and decorative elements
would have disappeared forever.”
16 “Architecture should speak of its time and
place, but yearn for timelessness.”
“98% of what gets built today is shit.”
•Foundation Louis Vuition (Paris) Frank Gehry
•New York The 88 storey Skyscrapers (NY) (Canadian-American Architect)
“Most important Architect of Contemporary era &
•GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM (Bilbao, Spain) the Most Famous living Architect”
•WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL (LA, California)
•Dancing House “Ginger & Fred” (Czech Rep)
•8 Spruce Street “Beekman Tower” (NY)

17 “When a Form Creates Beauty, It Becomes
Functional & Therefore Fundamental in
Architecture”
“My work is not about 'form follows function’,
but 'form follows beauty' or, even better, 'form
follows feminine.”
“In Architecture, the most important thing is
Astonishment.”
18 “You cannot simply put something new into a
place. You have to absorb what you see around
you, what exists on the land, and then use that
knowledge along with contemporary thinking to
interpret what you see.”
19 “Architecture is not based on concrete and steel
and the elements of the soil. It’s based on
wonder.”
•National Congress of Brazil Oscar Niemeyer
•METROPOLITAN CATHEDRAL OF OUR (Brazilian Architect)
“King of Curves”
LADY APARECIDA / CATHEDRAL OF
BRASILIA
•GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM (Bilbao, Spain)
•NITEROI CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM
(Rio de Janeiro) “flying saucer”
•Palacio da Alvorada Palace
•8 Spruce Street “Beekman Tower” (NY)
•Church of Light (Japan) Tadao Ando
•4x4 House (Japan) (Japanese Architect)
style: Natural Lightning
•Suntory Museum of Art (Tokyo, Japn)
•JEWISH MUSEUM, Berlin – Largest Jewish Museum Daniel Libeskind
in Europe
(introducing complex ideas & emotion)
•ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER, NYC – Tallest
Skyscraper in the Western Hemishpere
•Royal Ontavio Museum (Toronto)

20 “When I’m working on a problem, I never think •Gedesic House Buckminster Fuller
about beauty. But when I’ve finished, if the R. Buckminster Fuller and Anne Hewlett Dome Home (Japan) (American Architect)
Geodesic Dome
solution is not beautiful, I know it’s wrong.”

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 Architects Dictums with their blgd. Design Prepared By: EDA

21 “Architecture arouses sentiments in man. The •Looshaus (Austria) Adolf Loos

architect’s task therefore, is to make those •Villa Müller (Czech Rep) (Austrian Architect)

sentiments more precise.”

“Supply and demand regulate architectural
form.”

22 “Architecture must have something that appeals
to the human heart, but even them, basic forms
spaces and appearance must be logical…”
•St. Mary’s Cathedral (Tokyo, Japan)
•Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park (after WW2)
•OLYMPIC ARENA (Tokyo, Japan)
Kenzo Tange
(Japanese Architect)
One of the most significant architects of the
20th century, combining traditional Japanese
styles with modernism, and designed major
buildings on five continents.

“Designs of purely arbitrary nature cannot be

expected to last long.”
23 “Architecture is really about well-being. I think •VITRA FIRE STATION Weil Am Rhein, Germany Zaha Hadid
that people want to feel good in a space… On •HEYDAR ALIYEV CENTRE
“Queen of the Curve”
“Greatest Female Arch’t”
the one hand it’s about shelter, but it’s also •Galaxy SOHO (Beijing) 2004 PRITZKER Awardee
about pleasure.” •MORPHEUS HOTEL TOWER Bldg.
UK’s most Prestigious Award the 2010-2011
STIRLING PRIZE
•ROSENTHAL CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTRE
Cincinnati – Pritzker Awarded (US’s 1st Museum Designed by a
Woman)
•Leeza SOHO or Li Ze tower (194m twisting
Atrium

24 “Recognizing the need is the primary condition •St. Mary's Catholic Church (Helena-West Helena, Charles Eames
for design.” Arkansas) EAMES CHAIR &FURNITURE

24 “When we build, let us think that we build John Ruskin

forever.” English Writer
The Poetry of Architecture
25 “The architecture we remember is that which •WEXNER CENTER FOR THE ARTS (Ohio) Peter Eisenman
never consoles or comforts us.” •City of Culture in Santiago de Compostela “One of New York 5”

“The best Architecture was incongruous and

disharmonious.”
26 “To me the drawn language is a very revealing •Dulles international airport Eero Saarinen
language: one can see in a few lines whether a •Gateway Arch 630 ft. tall monument (United States) (Finnish-American Architect)

man is really an architect.” •TWA FLIGHT CENTER / TRANS WORLD

“The function influence but does not dictate FLIGHT CENTER (1962) (Post-Modern; 1st Airport to
Introduce the Concept of Separating Arrival & Departure Space)
form.”
“The purpose of Architecture is to shelter and
enhance man’s life on earth and to fulfill in the
nobility in of his existence.”
27 “Always design a thing by considering it in its •Helsinki Central Station (Finland) Eliel Saarinen
next larger context – a chair in a room, a room (Finnish-American Architect)

in a house, a house in an environment, an

environment in a city plan.”
“Architectural-form equals social-form.”
“Beauty groups from necessity not from
repetition of formulas.”
28 “A great building must begin with the •PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY LIBRARY, New Louis Kahn
immeasurable, must go through measurable Hampshire
means when it is being designed, and in the •KIMBELL ART MUSEUM Fort Worth, Texas
end must be unmeasured.” •RICHARD MEDICAL RESEARCH BUILDING
“Design is not making beauty, beauty emerges Pennsylvania

from selection, affinities, integration, and love.”

“Architectural form should reflect a bldg.’s
social purpose.”
29 “The essential element in architecture is the Paul Rudolph
manipulation of space. It is this essence which known for his use of concrete & highly
complex floor plans
separates it from all other arts.” (chair of Yale University's Department of
Architecture for 6 years)
30 “KILL THE SKYSCRAPER” •DE ROTTERDAM COMPLEX – Largest Building in the Rem Koolhaas
“The Skyscraper Has Become Less Interesting Country “One of AR’s Most Influential Thinkers;

in Inverse Proportion to Its Success. It Has Not
Been Refined but Corrupted.”
“Architecture is a dangerous mixture of power
and impotence.”
•CCTV HEADQUARTERS, Beijing, China – Building’s two Gravity-Defying Structures”
OMA (Office for Metropolitan AR) – Rem
towers are connected by a 246-foot cantilever / “Overhang”
Founder of AR’l Firm
•SEATTLE CENTRAL LIBRARY
•IIT McCormick Tribune Campus Center

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 Architects Dictums with their blgd. Design Prepared By: EDA

31 “THE STRAIGHT LINE BELONGS TO MEN, THE •Casa Josep Batllo (Center of Barcelona) Antoni Gaudi
CURVED ONE TO GOD” •Casa Mila Barcelona “La Pedrera” (1906-1910) "GOD'S ARCHITECT"
“There are no straight lines or sharp corners in
•Sagrada Familia (Barcelona)
nature. Therefore, buildings must have no straight
lines or sharp corners.”
32 “I am always searching for more light and Santiago Calatrava
space.” (Spanish Architect)

33 “I believe that the material doesn’t need to be Shigeru Ban

strong to be used to build a strong structure. (Japanese Architect)

The strength of the structure has nothing to do

with strength of the material.”
34 “For me, the excitement in architecture revolves •Simmons Hall Steven Holl
around the idea and the phenomenon of the (American Architect)

experience of that idea. Residences offer

almost immediate gratification. You can shape
space, light, and materials to a degree that you
sometimes can't in larger projects.”
35 “There is a rumour that I can’t draw and never •SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE (1973) Jørn Utzon
could. This is probably because I work so much (Danish Architect)

with models. Models are one of the most

beautiful design tools, but I still do the finest
drawings you can imagine.”
36 – “Make No Little Plans, They Have No Magic to Stir •Flatiron Building “Fuller Building” (Manhattan NY) Daniel Burnham
Man’s Blood.” (American Architect)

37 “Nature, not the machine, should serve as the •Villa Mairea Alvar Aalto
model for Architecture.” •NEUR VAHR APARTMENT (Germany)
“Building art is a synthesis of life in materialised
form. We should try to bring in under the same
hat not a splintered way of thinking, but all in
harmony together.”
38 “My passion and great enjoyment for •Centre Pompidou Richard Rogers
architecture, and the reason the older I get the (High-tech Pioneered)

more I enjoy it, is because I believe we -

architects - can affect the quality of life of the
people.”
39 “Each new situation requires a new •National Museum of Qatar Jean Nouvel
architecture.” •La Marseillaise (skyscraper office)
40 “Architecture aims at eternity.” •St. Paul's Cathedral Christopher Wren
•Monument to the Great Fire (London) most highly acclaimed English architects in
history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer,
•Sheldonian Theatre geometer, and mathematician-physicist.
41 “There will never be great architects or great •Rashtrapati Bhavan Edwin Lutyens
architecture without great patrons. •Castle Drogo (England) English architect known for imaginatively
adapting traditional architectural styles
•India Gate
42 “Architects have made architecture too •Sendai Mediatheque (Japan) Toyo Ito
complex. We need to simplify it and use a •Gifu Media Cosmos (Japan) (Japanese Architect)

language that everyone can understand.”

43 “In any architecture, there is an equity between •TEAM DISNEY BURBANK California (7 Dwarves Facade) Michael Graves
the pragmatic function and the symbolic (Member of The New York Five and the
•PORTLAND BUILDING Memphis Group)
function.” •DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY (Professor of architecture at Princeton
University for nearly forty years)
•STEIGENBERGER HOTEL IN EGYPT)

44 “What surprises me most in architecture, as in Aldo Rossi

other techniques, is that a project has one life in (First Italian to receive the Pritzker Prize for
architecture)
its built state but another in its written or drawn (One of the leading proponents of the
state." postmodern movement)

45 “The purpose of architecture is to create an •Designing the original World Trade Center Minoru Yamasaki
atmosphere in which man can live, work, and (New York City) First-generation Japanese American

enjoy.”
46 “Architecture is a visual art, and the buildings •Hearst Castle Julia Morgan
speak for themselves.” •Julia Morgan House (American Archt & Engr)
First Woman admitted to Ecole des Beaux-
Arts in Paris; 700+ California Bldgs.

47 “Profit and bottom line, the contemporary Arthur Erickson

mantra, eliminates the very source of (Canadian Architect)
noted figure in Canadian AR’l History)
architectural expression.”

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 Architects Dictums with their blgd. Design Prepared By: EDA

48 “Architecture is the design of space, both Bruce John Graham

interior and exterior. So it’s much more closely (Peruvian-American Architect)
involved w/ Burnham Plan of Chicago
related to dance than it is to painting or Notable Building
sculpture.”

49 “Architecture is not a private affair; even a John Portman

house must serve a whole family and its (American Neo-Futuristic Archt & Real Estate
Developer)
friends, and most buildings are used by
everybody, people of all walks of life. If a
building is to meet the needs of all the people,
the architect must look for some common
ground of understanding and experience.”
50 “The great thing about being an architect is you •Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (Florida) Harold Wagoner
can walk into your dreams.” •National Presbyterian Church (Washington DC USA) prominent twentieth-century American
ecclesiastical architect who designed many
•Cathedral Of the Rockies notable churches
•Second Presbyterian Church (Memphis, Tennessee) (1952)
51 “Architecture is an art when one consciously or •Casa Luis Barragán (Museum in Mexico) Luis Barragan
unconsciously creates aesthetic emotion in the (Mexican Engr & Architect)
•Torres de Satélite (Mexico)
atmosphere and when this environment •Faro del Comercio (Sculpture in Monterrey, Mexico)
produces well being.”
52 “If a building becomes architecture, then it is art.” Arne Jacobsen
(Danish Architect)
53 “Tradition is a challenge to innovation.” •Piscina das Marés (Public Swimming Pool) (Portugal) Alvaro Siza
•Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves (Portuguese architect)
(Portugal)
54 “Architecture is much more than a profession; Odile Decq
It’s a discipline.” (French architect)
"Poetic modernism"
(Urban planner and academic. She is the
founder of the Paris firm, Studio Odile Decq)
55 “Architecture isn't just about creating new John Pawson
buildings, sometimes its about retuning what's (Minimalist aesthetic)

already there.”
56 “I’m telling you, the materials are the same, you •Hotel Tassel, Brussels (Central stair hall) Victor Horia
know as well as I do…” (Belgian Architect)
Founder of Art Nouveau in the 1890’s
57 “I do not write, I build.” •Palmio Sanatorium (Center of Barcelona) Alvar Aalto
(Finnish Architect)
• MIT BAKER HOUSE DORMITORY (Cambridge,
“Architecture belongs to culture not to Massachusetts)
civilization." •HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
“Nature, not the machine, should serve as the LECTURE HALL
model for Architecture.” •TURUN SANOMAT
•FILANDIA HALL

58 “I try to make a house like a flower pot, in which •Kaufman House (Palm Spring California) Richard Neutra
you can root something and out of which family •Tower of Hope, Christ Cathedral (Austrian-American architect)

life will bloom.”

“Architecture must have a razor-sharp sense of
individuality.”
59 “Even a brick wants to be something.” •Jariyo Sangshad Bhaban Louis Kahn
“An architect can build a house and build a city •Kimbell Art Museum Christ Cathedral (American architect)

in the same breath, if he thinks about it as •Salk Institute

being a marvelous, inspired, expressive real.”
“Architectural form should reflect a building
social purpose.”
60 “A lasting Architecture has to have roots.”
•PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY LIBRARY
(New Hampshire)
•KIMBELL ART MUSEUM, Fort Worth (Texas)
RICHARD MEDICAL RESEARCH BUILDING
(Pennsylvania)
•Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland, Ohio) I.M Pei (Leoh Ming Pei)
(Chinese American Architect)
•Baltimore World Trade Center (Maryland)
•Louvre Museum (Paris, France)
• A pyramid in Paris (and was not designed by French)

61 “I have built little. But, I have built many castles Frei Otto
in the air.” (German architect and structural Engineer)

“To build means to make architecture real on

the borders of knowledge.”

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