The 80 best architecture phrases

Architecture is not only a sample of what humans can do with imagination and construction materials, magnificent works, firm palaces and temples that, despite their millennial age, are still stable and present in the present. It also represents the ability to move forward and give anyone a home to love.

To better understand this art and its nuances, here we will review several of the best architecture phrases.

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The most inspiring phrases about architecture

With this collection of quotes and reflections on architecture, we will show the impact and beauty that it has left the world.

1. By dint of building well, one becomes a good architect. (Aristotle)

The best buildings are those that stand firm.

2. Buildings must be adapted to the needs and different conditions of the people who will inhabit them. (Marcus Vitruvius)

Even the architecture needs to move forward and update.

3. Beauty perishes in life but is immortal in art. (Leonardo da Vinci)

A great way to see it is through the old structures.

4. The architect's job today is to create beautiful buildings. That's all. (Philip Johnson)

Somewhat superficial work.

5. The world is not a right angle. (Zaha Hadid)

As everything changes and moves, so is the world.

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6. The house must be the case of life, the machine of happiness. (Le Corbusier)

It must be a personal environment that offers us peace and happiness.

7. A building has two lives. The one imagined by its creator and the life it has. And they are not always the same. (Rem Koolhaas)

Not all things happen as we plan.

8. The exercise of architecture is the most delicious of tasks. It is also, together with agriculture, the most necessary for man. (Philip Johnson)

It is necessary for life, because we all deserve a home.

9. Architects do not invent anything, they only transform reality. (Alvaro Siza)

They shape what will eventually happen.

10. Architecture awakens feelings in man. Therefore, the task of the architect is to make those feelings more precise. (Adolf Loos)

It is bringing to reality what is created in the mind.

11. The many and very complex questions that we face today, such as sustainability, ecology or smart city, are an opportunity for architects. (Jean Philippe)

About green and eco friendly buildings.

12. My architecture is a kind of frame of nature. (Kengo Kuma)

A way to respect our green world.

13. My priority is to focus on what improves people's quality of life, makes them healthier and happier. (Norman Foster)

A way to make people happier.

14. Architecture cannot force people to connect, it can only plan crossing points, remove barriers, and make meeting places useful and attractive. (Denise Scott Brown)

Eliminate those barriers that distance us.

15. The details are not the details. The details are the design. (Charles Eames)

The details are part of the whole.

16. In decoration always place a controversial piece. It will give your guests a topic of conversation. (Dorothy Draper)

They all draw their attention to a distinctive element.

17. Love the colour. Take risks. Be curious. (Kelly Wearstler)

It is an opportunity to experiment.

18. I try to understand the place at a deeper level than just the physical or environmental aspects. It also includes cultural and intellectual forces. (Antoine Predock)

It is an element that encompasses all phases of humanity.

19. I always liked to talk about architecture as entertainment; if it is not done happily it is not architecture. (Alejandro de la Sota)

Everything we do must be done with love and joy.

20. What is design? A plan for placing items in the best way to achieve a particular purpose. (Charles Eames)

A way to see the purpose of the design.

21. Ecological responsibility must be the driving force behind the planning of such settlements. (Richard Rogers)

Constructions must respect nature, not destroy it.

22. Architecture is inhabited sculpture. (Constantine Brancusi)

Being able to live in something beautiful.

23. Architecture is a visual art and the buildings speak for themselves. (Julia Morgan)

We can verify it with the old constructions that continue to amaze us.

24. Architecture is the least bribeable witness in history. (Octavio Paz)

It is the only one that expresses the truth without alterations/

25. Architects know everything about the Romantic style, except how to build it. (Gilbert Keith Chesterton)

A critique of the romantic style.

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26. Architecture is not about designing something from a free and fanciful idea. It is a matter of discovering and establishing one's own principle, some kind of regularity. (Shigeru Ban)

The design that is embodied in all architecture.

27. Architecture is the scope of truth. (Louis I. Khan)

It is the way in which history can be shown as it was.

28. I think buildings should mimic ecological ecosystems. (Ken Yeang)

Bring nature to the city.

29. The aesthetics of architecture should be based on a broader idea about human activities like walking, relaxing and communicating. (Thom Mayne)

It should be friendly and make everyday life easier.

30. The goal of architecture is to find the best way to distribute the space so that people feel good in it. (John Pawson)

It is to make comfortable and charming a place to live.

31. My work is not about 'form follows function', but 'form follows beauty' or better yet 'form follows femininity'. (Oscar Niemeyer)

Each architect has his own inspiration that drives him.

32. We must try to bring nature, houses and human beings closer to a higher unity. (Mies van der Rohe)

The future of architecture must focus on being kind to the environment.

33. The more advanced a country is, the less attention it pays to architecture. (Rafael Monéo)

An evil that must be changed.

34. I believe that life is celebrated when lifestyle and architecture merge. (Balkrishna Doshi)

The perfect conjugation between the interior and the exterior.

35. Architecture does not exist without people. (Kjetil Traedal Thorsen)

Who is going to admire architecture if not humans?

36. The rule of architecture is to do things with love and obsession in great proportion. (Miguel Fisac)

But always with the purpose of leaving something beautiful.

37. Architecture is based on science as much as intuition. (Jorn Utzon)

It is the midpoint between logic and instinct.

38. The simple joy of taking an idea into your own hands and putting it into proper shape is exciting. (George Nelson)

It is a perfect example of how we can use our creativity.

39. I believe that the architect must be a humanist. His vision must be global, universal and therefore local. (Carlos Raul Villanueva)

The most important characteristic that an architect must have.

40. To create, one must first question everything. (Eileen Gray)

To bring something new, we must study what already exists.

41. Architecture points to eternity. (Christopher Wren)

To be a piece of the past in the future.

42. Architecture must belong to the environment where it is going to be located and adorn the landscape instead of disgracing it. (Frank Lloyd Wright)

A reflection on not attacking nature to please the whim of people.

43. The extension of the art of housing is the art of living, living in harmony with the deepest impulses of man and with his adopted or prefabricated environment. (Charlotte Perriand)

Any house can be turned into a home.

44. We have to base architecture on the environment. (Toyō Ito)

Insisting on combining the environment with the architecture.

45. If a work is intense, valid and has a powerful idea, it will make imperfections remain in the background. (Alberto Campo Baeza)

Perfection is in the beauty of different things.

46. Memory is an intrinsic part of architecture, because without knowing where we have been, we have no idea where we are going. (Daniel Libeskind)

The past is essential to improve the way of construction.

47. The functional is better than the beautiful, because what works well remains over time. (Ray Eames)

A beautiful façade is worth nothing if it fades soon.

48. Form follows function. (Walter Gropius)

There can not be one without the other.

49. The pride of those who cannot build is to destroy. (Alexandre Dumas)

That is why many terrorists destroy important works.

50. Architecture doesn't deal with abstract things like philosophy. (Peter Zumthor)

It is a combination of strategy and empathy with feelings.

51. Each new situation requires a new architecture. (Jean Nouvel)

The architecture should not be static.

52. The difference between good and bad architecture is the time you spend on it. (David Chipperfield)

It is better to have a strong foundation than a quick job.

53. Architecture builds landscape or builds city: it is not a sculpture. (Carme Pinos)

The difference between architecture and sculpture.

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54. The only sustainable form of urban development is compact cities. (Richard Rogers)

Talking about the future of sustainable architecture.

55. Whenever possible it is better to bare a building. (Toyō Ito)

A spiritual way of dealing with architecture.

56. Architecture is one more component to produce relevant changes in society. (Michel Rojkind)

It is the sample of how a society advances.

57. Space is meaningless without light. A building speaks through the silence of perception orchestrated by light. (Steven Holl)

The importance of providing light to buildings.

58. We shape our buildings, then they shape us. (Winston Churchill)

As we are part of society, we are also part of its architecture.

59. Originality consists in the return to the origin; thus, original is that which returns to the simplicity of the first solutions. (Antonio Gaudi)

The original can be a twist on the classic.

60. My house is my refuge, an emotional piece of architecture, not a cold piece of convenience. (Luis Barragan)

The right way every home should feel.

61. I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble. (August)

A great example of how spaces can become iconic.

62. In any architecture there is an equality between the pragmatic function and the symbolic function. (Michael Graves)

A way to combine logic with emotions.

63. Any architectural work that does not express serenity is a mistake. (Luis Barragan)

Every structure must transmit a bit of peace to its inhabitants.

64. Architecture is the learned, correct and magnificent game of forms assembled in light. (Le Corbusier)

Prevent structures from being plunged into darkness.

65. When I'm working on a problem, I never think about its beauty. I just think about how to solve the problem. But when I finish it, if the solution isn't pretty, I know it's wrong. (Richard Buckminster Fuller)

A strict job can also result in something beautiful.

66. The architect is the synthetic man, the one who is capable of seeing things together before they are made. (Antoni Gaudí)

A way of seeing the future.

67. Light is not something vague and diffuse that can be taken for granted simply because it is always there. The sun does not rise in vain every day. (Alberto Campo Baeza)

Using light is essential for every construction.

68. Architecture is the art of wasting space. (Philip Johnson)

Use a blank space to spice it up.

69. There is no house so bad that it cannot be turned into something worthwhile. (Elsie De Wolfe)

Every house can be recovered with a touch of love.

70. The architect's task is to provide life with a more sensitive structure. (Alvar Aalto)

A construction that makes us reflect and thank.

71. An architect is a dream artist. (Grace McGarvie)

The greatest capacity of architectural talent.

72. There are such a large number of large cities in the world that the people who inhabit them live more isolated than ever. (Toyō Ito)

Cities are attractive but they can also be overwhelming.

73. Architecture is a way of translating dreams into the real world. (Bijiarke Ingels)

Build the imagination.

74. I always believed that my architecture would solve more questions than my political action. (Rem Koolhaas)

Even buildings can carry a message of revolution.

75. I have always affirmed that places are stronger than people. (Aldo Rossi)

Places contribute to telling the stories of a place.

76. To provide meaningful architecture is not to parody history, but to articulate it. (Daniel Libeskind)

It is leaving a mark that manages to pay homage to a historic time.

77. Architects spend a lifetime with this reasonable idea that you can fight gravity. (Renzo Piano)

Each time, they are more risky with their creativity.

78. Every great architect is necessarily a great poet. It must be an original interpreter of his time, his days, his age. (Frank Lloyd Wright)

A way of relating architecture with art.

79. The purpose of a house is to provide a good and comfortable life, and it would be a mistake to place too much value on a purely decorative result. (Lina Bo Bardi)

Every house should have an air of personal home.

80. Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness. (Frank Gehry)

Represent an era, but that manages to prevail in the future tense.