You Have To Do Every Detail On Every Bloody Piece Of The Building. You Have To Know How The Engineering Works. You Have To Know How The Fittings Go Together. You Have To Master The Mechanical, Electrical, Acoustical - Everything.

-Frank Gehry

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Frank Gehry

Topic

Engineering

Together

Details

More From Frank Gehry

The Message I Hope To Have Sent Is Just The Example Of Being Yourself. I Tell This To My Students: It's Not About Copying Me Or My Logic Systems. It's About Allowing Yourself To Be Yourself.

Being Yourself

Self Esteem

Copying

I've Been Told I Have The Biggest Ego In The World And That It Manifests Itself When You Come To Me And Say, 'i Don't Like This' Or 'i Want A Change'... And That I Relish That Because My Ego's So Big I Think I Can Solve Whatever You Throw At Me And Make It Even Better. I Enjoy The Interaction And The Challenge.

Thinking

Ego

Challenges

One Of My Unsung Heroes Is Erich Mendelsohn. I Met Him When I Was A Student And He Was A Cranky Old Man And Very Unpleasant. But If You Go To His Einstein Tower In Potsdam, Germany You See An Enormous Intellect At Work With A Language That Was Personal And New. It Has A Sense Of Urban Design And Of Theater And Procession I Hadn't Seen Before.

Hero

Men

Design

The Rap On Me On The Street Is The Opposite - I'm Impractical, I'm More Expensive, It's Too Complicated And I Run Over Budgets, Which Isn't True. None Of That's True And There's Plenty Of Documentation If Anybody Needs It.

Running

Rap

Opposites

Those Who Say Only Artists And Architects Can Create Are The Ones Who Are Elitist.

Artist

Architect

Elitist

Architecture And Any Art Can Transform A Person, Even Save Someone. It Can For Children - For Anyone. It Still Does For Me.

A New Idea Is Obsolete In Seconds, Right? I Just Said It And Now It's Obsolete.

Ideas

Obsolete

Said

The Safety Requirements, Which Are Necessary, Spread Everything Out And Push People Farther And Farther Away From The Stage And From Each Other.

People

Safety

Requirements

I Never Said I Was Opposed To The Leed Program Or To Green Building - I'm Not.

Green

Building

Program

If You Know Where It's Going, It's Not Worth Doing.

Knows

Ifs

You've Got To Like The People You Work With.

People

I Refuse To Work Unless I Get Paid, So I Don't Get A Lot Of Work Sometimes.

Sometimes

Refuse

Paid

Bilbao Opened In 1997. It Was Only Ten Years Later That I Was Asked To Do Another Museum. A Lot Of Other People Got Work Because Of Bilbao.

Museums

Years

People

I'm A Do-gooder Liberal.

The Present Is Filled With Flotsam And Irony And Chaos And Disorder In All Arenas, Political And Sociological. I Think We Have To Work In The Present Even If It's Awkward, Even If It's Not Necessarily Good, Even If We Don't Understand It Ourselves. You Only Find Out 10, Maybe 20 Years Later What Was Going On.

Thinking

Years

Political

Green Issues Have Been Used As A Marketing Tool. Sometimes These Green Claims Are Completely Meaningless.

Issues

Marketing

Tools

Well, I've Always Just - I've Never Really Gone Out Looking For Work. I Always Waited For It To Sort Of Hit Me On The Head.

Gone

Wells

Looking For Work

The Architect Borromini's Quattro Fontane, A Little Church In Rome, Is One Of The Most Beautiful Rooms In History.

Beautiful

Rome

Church

Creativity Is About Play And A Kind Of Willingness To Go With Your Intuition. It's Crucial To An Artist. If You Know Where You Are Going And What You Are Going To Do, Why Do It? I Think I Learned That From The Artists, From My Grandmother, From All The Creative People I've Spent Time With Over The Years.

Fun

Creativity

Grandmother

The Back Of Saint Peter's Is One Of The Finest Pieces Of Architecture I've Ever Seen.

Saint

Pieces

Architecture

In The Renaissance There Wasn't A Distinction. Bernini Was An Artist And He Made Architecture, And Michelangelo Also Did Some Great Architecture.

Artist

Renaissance

Architecture

Most Of Our Cities Built Since The War Are Bland. They're Modernist, They're Cold, And Now Architects Want To Go Back To That.

War

Cities

Want

I Have Always Thought That L.a. Is A Motor City That Developed Linear Downtowns.

Cities

Downtown

Linear

You See A Lot Of So-called Architecture That Part Of The Ego Trip Overpowers The Functionality And The Budget And All That Stuff.

Ego

Stuff

Architecture

I Don't Think All Buildings Have To Be Iconic, But The History Of The World Has Shown Us That Cultures Build Iconic Buildings For Their Major Public Buildings.

Thinking

Culture

World

I'm Going To Design The Container And Interior Spaces. You Bring Your Own Stuff To It And Make It Your Own.

Space

Design

Stuff

China Is Building Cities For A 20 To 40 Percent Increase In Population. India Is Quickly Growing. The Carbon Footprints Of That And Other Development Around The World Are Overwhelming.

Cities

Carbon Footprint

India

I Found The Material That People Hated The Most And Used The Most. So, I Was Going And Try And See If I Could Play With It Sculpturally.

Play

People

Trying

I Am Obsessed With Architecture. It Is True, I Am Restless, Trying To Find Myself As An Architect, And How Best To Contribute In This World Filled With Contradiction, Disparity, And Inequality, Even Passion And Opportunity.

Passion

Opportunity

Trying

There Is A Backlash Against Me And Everyone Who Has Done Buildings That Have Movement And Feeling.

Feelings

Done

Movement

Each Project, I Suffer Like I'm Starting Over Again In Life. There's A Lot Of Healthy Insecurity That Fuels This Stuff.

Starting Over

Healthy

Insecurity

There Is Stuff I Would Have Liked To Have Done. But There Are No Sour Grapes.

Done

Stuff

Sour

Ultimately You Can't Repress Individuality, Even Though You Can Try.

Individuality

Trying

Your Best Work Is Your Expression Of Yourself.

Expression

Best Work

There Is An Order To Our Environment, A Broader Order.

Order

Environment

Our Environment

Childhood Play Is Nothing More Than An Expression Of Our Individuality And Preparation For Human Interaction.

Play

Expression

Childhood

My Father Was An Urchin That Lived In Hell's Kitchen. He Was Part Of A Family Of Nine. I Mean, There Were Times That Were Better And Worse, But Mostly, By The Time We Got To L.a., They'd Lost Whatever They Had. And It Was A Sad Time. And Both He And I Became Truck Drivers For Different Companies.

Father

Mean

Kitchen

That's Why You Go Into Architecture - At Least I Did - To Do Things For People. I Think Most Of Us Are Idealists. You Start Out That Way, Anyway.

Thinking

People

Way

I'm Preprogrammed Emotionally And Intellectually Not To Go Down Blind Alleys. I Don't Waste The Time. I Automatically Edit Out Whatever's Impractical.

Waste

Blind

Alleys

The Culture Of France Is Unique Because It's A Culture That Has A High Priority On The Arts, More Than Any Other Place In The World In Our Time Since Greece. So As A Practicing Artist, If You Will, This Is Home Ground. They Love Us, So Music, Literature, Art Continues To Be The Center.

Art

Home

Unique

There's A Drive In Us To Express Ourselves In Some Way Or Form. We Pick Up Whatever Material Is Available. It's Primitive. Kids See Sand On The Beach, Build Something And Show Their Parents: "look What I Did, Mama." It's Necessary To Us.

Beach

Kids

Parent

I Am Just Relating To The World We Live In. I See Some Order In It, Even Though It Looks Like Mush.

Order

Looks

World

You've Got To Bumble Forward Into The Unknown.

Life

Success

Famous Inspirational

I Love Working. I Don't Know What The Word Vacation Means.

Mean

Vacation

Knows

It Should Begin Much Earlier With Arts Education In The American School System, Which Is Sadly Deficient.

Art

School

Should

You Can't Ignore History; You Can't Escape It Even If You Want To. You Might As Well Know Where You Come From, And You Might As Well Know That Everything Has Been Done In Some Shape Or Form.

Done

Shapes

Want

Some People May Say My Curved Panels Look Like Sails. Well, I Am A Sailor, So I Guess I Probably Do Use That Metaphor In My Work - Though Not Consciously.

People

Looks

Use

Man, There's Another Freedom Out There, And It Comes From Somewhere Else, And That Somewhere Else Is The Place I'm Interested In.

Men

Somewhere Else

Architecture

I Think My Best Skill As An Architect Is The Achievement Of Hand-to-eye Coordination. I Am Able To Transfer A Sketch Into A Model Into The Building.

Eye

Thinking

Hands

I Found Myself Starting Architecture With A Deep Social, Jewish, Liberal Conscience, And The Belief That Architecture Is For The People. It Was A Do-gooder Base; I Was Born And Raised That Way. I Was For Blacks, Whites, Italians, Poles, Whatever.

People

Way

Belief

It's Not New That Architecture Can Profoundly Affect A Place, Sometimes Transform It.

Architecture

Sometimes

I Promised A Lot Of People I'd Slow Down When I Turned 80.

People

Slow Down

You Can Look Anywhere And Find Inspiration.

Inspiration

Looks

When I Was A Child I Could Do Math And Art, So I Had Left- And Right-brain Capabilities. But I've Seen My Children, Who Are More Right-brained, Struggling. My Son Was Told He Wouldn't Make It To College, But He Dogged It Through And Ended Up Being Accepted By 10 Major Art Schools After The High School Advisor Said, "please Don't Apply. You're Going To Be Disappointed." That Kid's An Artist Now.

Art

Children

Struggle

In The Art World Robert Rauschenberg Had Been Combining Common Materials That People Thought Was Art And Beautiful, And It Was. If He Could Do That, I Could Emulate Him.

Beautiful

Art

People

I'm Of Two Minds About Doing Any Interviews These Days. It Seems A Lot Of The World Is Out To Play Gotcha With Me. I Guess They Always Go After People These Days. It's Sport.

Sports

Play

Two

In The End, The Character Of A Civilization Is Encased In Its Structures.

Character

Civilization

History

Ideas Exist In The Marketplace; They Are Thrown Out For Everyone To Use.

Ideas

Use

Thrown

I Don't Make Things With My Hands, Although I Studied Woodworking And Made Furniture.

Hands

Woodworking

Furniture

An Architect Is Given A Program, Budget, Place, And Schedule. Sometimes The End Product Rises To Art - Or At Least People Call It That.

Art

People

Schedules

Architecture Should Speak Of Its Time And Place, But Yearn For Timelessness.

Badass

Bad Ass

Talking

We Deny Our Nature To Build And Create And Then Wonder Why There Is So Much Alienation And Dissatisfaction.

Wonder

Deny

Alienation

You Have To Build Up A Credibility Before The Support Comes To You.

Money

Support

Credibility

A Well-designed Home Has To Be Very Comfortable. I Can't Stand The Aesthetes, The Minimal Thing. I Can't Live That Way. My Home Has To Be Filled With Stuff - Mostly Paintings, Sculpture, My Fish Lamps, Cardboard Furniture, Lots Of Books.

Book

Home

Furniture

Chicago's One Of The Rare Places Where Architecture Is More Visible.

Chicago

Architecture

Visible

What I Have Learned About Museum Buildings Is That Buildings Have To Have Iconic Presentations. The Position Of The Art Museum Vis-a-vis Other Civic Buildings Needs To Be Hierarchal In The Community. It Has To Be Equal To The Library And The Courthouse.

Art

Community

Library

It's A Metaphor For What We're Being Told: "just Stay In The Box, Kid, Don't Muddy The Water." Parents Say It To Their Kids. Teachers Say It. Schools Do. And So People Become Immune To The Sameness.

Teacher

School

Kids

When People Condemn Me For Designing Iconic Buildings In Cities And Not Having An Idea What A City Is, They Haven't Done Their Homework. I Started In Urban Design And City Planning. It's Just That When I Got Out Of School There Wasn't Much Of A Market For That. There Still Isn't.

School

Cities

Ideas

We Have Always Created - Music, Literature, Art, Dance. The Art Around Us - Or Lack Of It - May Be A Measure Of How We're Doing As Individuals And As A Civilization, So Maybe We Should Be Worried.

Art

Civilization

Literature

I Used To Sketch - That's The Way I Thought Out Loud. Then They Made A Book Of My Sketches, And I Got Self-conscious, So Now I Don't Do It Much.

Book

Self

Way

One Of My Greatest Influences Is The Italian Artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Artist

Italian

Influence

Many People Put A Green Button On Their Collar And Feel Good, Just Like A Lot Of People Put An American Flag On Their Lapels And Feel Patriotic. It's Not Enough.

Cardboard Is Another Material That's Ubiquitous And Everybody Hates, Yet When I Made Furniture With It Everybody Loved It.

Hate

Furniture

Made

I'm Inspired By A Lot Of Stuff. I Always Was Interested In Sculpture And Painting And Music And Literature And All Those Things. There's No One Thing.

Sculpture

Literature

Stuff

Artists Dismiss Me As An Architect, So I'm Not In Their Box, And Architects Dismiss Me As An Artist, So I'm Not In Their Box.

Artist

Architect

Boxes

On Certain Projects, On Big Public Projects, People Definitely Are Interested In Making Them Greener, But On Smaller Projects With Tight Budgets It Can Be Harder.

People

Projects

Bigs

Generally People Are More Impressed With The Services And The Comfort Issues Than The Design.

Issues

People

Design

You Have Freedom, So You Have To Make Choices - And At The Point When I Make A Choice, The Building Starts To Look Like A Frank Gehry Building. It's A Signature.

Choices

Signatures

Looks

Democracy Is A Problem And We Don't Want To Get Rid Of It.

Democracy

Want

Problem

I Make A Model Of The Site. There Are Some Obvious Things: Where The Entrance Should Be, Where The Cars Have To Go In. You Start To Get The Scale Of It. You Understand The Client's Needs, And What The Client Is Hoping For And Yearning For.

Obvious Things

Car

Clients

People Live And Work In Uninspiring Environments, But Look Inside Those Rooms. Look At The Painted Walls And The Decorations. People Rebel Even In The Most Controlled Office Environment In Which They're Not Allowed To Do Anything. You See The Little Bulletin Board In Front Of A Person's Desk With Their Photos, Clippings, Cartoons And Whatever Else.

Wall

Office

People

People Are Searching For Something They Don't Have In Their Lives. There's An Unfulfilled Need.

People

Needs

There Are A Great Many Things About Architecture That Are Hidden From The Untrained Eye.

Eye

Architecture

Great Men

Let The Experience Begin!

Experience

And I Realized, When I'd Come In To The Meetings With These Corrugated Metal And Chain Link Stuff, And People Would Just Look At Me Like I'd Just Landed From Mars. But I Couldn't Do Anything Else. That Was My Response To The People And The Time.

Ties

People

Stuff

Liquid Architecture. It's Like Jazz - You Improvise, You Work Together, You Play Off Each Other, You Make Something, They Make Something. And I Think It's A Way Of - For Me, It's A Way Of Trying To Understand The City, And What Might Happen In The City.

Thinking

Play

Cities

There Are People Who Design Buildings That Are Not Technically And Financially Good, And There Are Those Who Do. Two Categories - Simple.

Simple

Two

People

My Father Probably - He Had Flashes Of Creativity - He Used To Do Store Windows For Fruit Stores That He Worked In And Stuff.

Father

Creativity

Stuff

Ninety Percent Of The Buildings We Live In And Around Aren't Architecture. No, That's Not Right - 98 Percent.

Architecture

Building

Ninety

People Ask Me If I'm An Artist Or An Architect. But I Think They're The Same.

Artist

Thinking

People

I Didn't Have Any Interest In Doing Rich People's Homes. I Still Don't.

Home

People

Rich

Here We Are Surrounded By Material That's Being Manufactured In Unimaginable Quantities Worldwide And Is Used Everywhere. I Don't Like It, No One Likes It, And Yet It's Pervasive. We Don't Even See It.

Likes

Used

Materials

I Think People Care. If Not, Why Do So Many People Spend Money Going On Vacations To See Architecture? They Go To The Parthenon, To Chartres, To The Sydney Opera House. They Go To Bilbao... Something Compels Them, And Yet We Live Surrounded By Everything But Great Architecture.

Vacation

Thinking

People

As Much As We Pretend Otherwise, We Want What's Comfortable, And We're Afraid Of The Different. We're Afraid Of Change.

Different

Want

Afraid Of Change

Picasso Could Use Everyone's Paintings And Transform Them Into His Own. He Was Using Ideas From All Of His Contemporaries.

Ideas

Use

Painting

Architecture Is A Small Piece Of This Human Equation, But For Those Of Us Who Practice It, We Believe In Its Potential To Make A Difference, To Enlighten And To Enrich The Human Experience, To Penetrate The Barriers Of Misunderstandin G And Provide A Beautiful Context For Life's Drama.

Beautiful

Drama

Believe

That's What You Have To Find In Architecture. You Have To Find Your Signature. When You Find It, You're The Only Expert On It. People Can Say They Like It Or Don't Like It. They Can Argue About It, But It's Yours.

People

Signatures

Experts

I Hate The Word Starchitect. Stuff Like That Comes From Mean-spirited, Untalented Journalists. It's Demeaning.

Hate

Mean

Stuff

If The Room Is Friendly To A Relationship Between Lecturer And Audience, You Feel Everything - The Tension, The Appreciation. I Think The Audience Feels It Too.

Appreciation

Thinking

Friendly

You Never Build The Perfect Building. Only Allah Is Perfect. Life Is Such. You Make Decisions On Conclusions, Then Some Guy Invents Something Else And The World Changes. That's Comforting. There's No One Way To Use Museums, No One Way To Do Art. That Also Means There Is No One Way To Build Museums.

Art

Mean

Perfect

I Don't Know How To Overcome This Perception That I'm Extravagant.

Perception

Overcoming

Know How

It's Not New That Architecture Can Profoundly Affect A Place, Sometimes Transform It. Architecture And Any Art Can Transform A Person, Even Save Someone. It Can For Children - For Anyone. It Still Does For Me.

Art

Children

Architecture

I Like The Idea Of Collaboration - It Pushes You. It's A Richer Experience.

Ideas

Collaboration

Your Work May Be Great And Not Make Its Way Into The Big Picture... Like Van Gogh... So Who's To Say What's Good And Bad?

May

Way

Bigs

The Idealism [in Architecture] Is In The Formal Arrangement, The Relationship To The City, The Use Of Materials That Are Available To Me. That's Where I Say Our Powers Are Limited.

Cities

Use

Architecture

For Me, Every Day Is A New Thing. I Approach Each Project With A New Insecurity, Almost Like The First Project I Ever Did. And I Get The Sweats. I Go In And Start Working, I'm Not Sure Where I'm Going. If I Knew Where I Was Going I Wouldn't Do It.

Motivational

Work

Sweat

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.

Believe

Cities

Looks

We Live And Work In Boxes. People Don't Even Notice That.

People

Boxes

My Father Always Told Me That I Was Going To Be A Failure - I Think He Was More Talking About Himself, But I Didn't Know It At The Time.

Father

Thinking

Talking

We Live And Work In Boxes. People Don't Even Notice That. Most Of What's Around Us Is Banal. We Live With It. We Accept It As Inevitable. People Say, "this Is The World The Way It Is, And Don't Bother Me."

People

World

Accepting

I Do My Best To Choose Carefully. If I Don’t Feel That Collaboration Is Going To Happen, I Say No. Think About It. These Projects Can Involve A Five-to-seven-year Partnership. If You Don’t Feel Comfortable With Someone, You Can’t Get Rid Of Them. I Just Walked Away From A Job For That Reason. Every One Of These Projects Is An Emotional Investment, Like Falling In Love. You’ve Got To Believe In It And You’ve Got To Like The People You Work With.

Falling In Love

Believe

Love You

The Thing Is, I Hate The Celebrity Architect Thing. I Just Do My Work.

Hate

I Hate

Architect

If The General Public Demanded Better, They'd Get Better, Because The Marketplace Responds To The Public's Needs And Desires.

Get Better

Desire

Needs

Everything - Design And Technology And Materials - Has Changed Since The World Trade Center Was Built. A Lot Of It Has To Do With Computers, Which Allow Us To Be Far More Efficient As Well As Structurally Sound.

Technology

Design

Sound

Not Every Person Has The Same Kinds Of Talents, So You Discover What Yours Are And Work With Them.

Talent

Kind

Persons

When You Agree To Collaborate, You Agree To Jump Off A Cliff Holding Hands With Everyone, Hoping The Resourcefulness Of Each Will Insure That You All Land On Your Feet.

Hands

Land

Feet

I Don't Know Why People Hire Architects And Then Tell Them What To Do.

Badass

Bad Ass

People

We're Physiologically Wired Differently.

The Game Is If The Orchestra Can Hear Each Other, They Play Better. If They Play Better And There's A Tangible Feeling Between The Orchestra And The Audience, If They Feel Each Other, The Audience Responds And The Orchestra Feels It.

Games

Play

Feelings

Everyone Has A Desire, If Not A Need, To Use Their Individual Signatures. Whenever People Meet To Talk About A Project, Even Stuffy Old Businessmen, They Say They Want To Create Something New.

People

Desire

Needs

Generally People Are Afraid. They Pretend They Aren’t; It’s Part Of The Denial. We’re All Part Of It. As Much As We Pretend Otherwise, We Want What’s Comfortable, And We’re Afraid Of The Different. We’re Afraid Of Change. It Happened In Los Angeles, Too, When The First Models Of Disney Hall Were Shown. You Should Have Heard The Outcry From The Public, Critics And Press. It Was Called “broken Crockery,” “outlandish” And Blah Blah Blah. Of Course Now The Feeling Is Different.

People

Broken

Feelings

I Don't Want To Do Architecture That's Dry And Dull.

Dry

Dull

Want

When I Start My Class I Ask The Students To Write Their Signatures On Pieces Of Paper And Put Them On A Table. I Have Them Look At Them, And I Point Out, "they're All Different, Aren't They? That's You, That's You, That's You, That's You."

Writing

Class

Signatures

Time Is Just A Blur For Me. I Don't Know What - I Don't Even Know Where I Am Sometimes.

Sometimes

Blur

Knows

There Are Places That Are So Designed They're Unlivable.

People Say, "this Is The World The Way It Is, And Don't Bother Me." Then When Somebody Does Something Different, Real Architecture, The Push-back Is Amazing. People Resist It. At First It's New And Scary.

Real

People

Scary

The Best Advice I've Received Is To Be Yourself. The Best Artists Do That.

Being Yourself

Artist

Advice

I Would Like To Make A Building As Intellectually Driven As It Is Sculptural And As Positive As It Would Be Acceptable To Hope.

Would Be

Building

Driven

In An Ideal World, Pressure Should Come From Below And From The Top.

World

Pressure

Should

Your Best Work Is Your Expression Of Yourself. Now, You May Not Be The Greatest At It, But When You Do It, You're The Only Expert.

Expression

Design

Experts

Many People Put A Green Button On Their Collar And Feel Good, Just Like A Lot Of People Put An American Flag On Their Lapels And Feel Patriotic. It's Not Enough.i'm Not Dismissing It.

Patriotic

People

Feel Good

Everybody's An Artist. Unfortunately We Don't Treat Them As Such.

Artist

Treats

Some Cultures Tried To Stop People From Expressing Themselves. In Mao's China, For Example, The Communists Tried To Stop Individual Expression. For Them The Payoff Was A Society Of Equality. The Problem Of Course Is That It Didn't Work.

Expression

People

Culture

For Me, Every Day Is A New Thing.

New Things

My Buildings Are All On Budget.

Building

Budgets

That's Where You Have To Look For Your Inspiration. Don't Separate The Rest Of Your Life - Who You Are, What You Love - From Your Work.

Inspiration

Looks

Rest Of Your Life

Computers Allow Architects To Remain Parental Instead Of Being Marginalized By The Contractors And Managers.

Computer

Architect

Parental

When You Were A Kid, If You Went To The Montreal Forum Or A Hockey Game At Maple Leaf Gardens, Which I Did, There Was A Great Feeling. The New Stadiums Don't Have It. Why Don't They Have It? Building Codes.

Kids

Hockey

Garden

I Can't Just Decide Myself What's Being Built. Someone Decides What They Want, Then I Work For Them.

Want

Built

I Can

In Tokyo, London Or Los Angeles People Go Into Mcdonald's And The Restaurants Are Identical And People Are Comfortable. It's Unthreatening.

Mcdonalds

People

London

Take What Comes Your Way. Do The Best With It. Be Responsible As You Can And Something Good Will Happen.

Responsibility

Way

Responsible

Childhood Play Is Nothing More Than An Expression Of Our Individuality And Preparation For Human Interaction. Everybody’s An Artist. Unfortunately We Don’t Treat Them As Such.

Artist

Childhood

Preparation

I Work From The Inside Out.

I Think You've Got To Accept That Certain Things Are In Process That You Can't Change, That You Can't Overwhelm. The Chaos Of Our Cities, The Randomness Of Our Lives, The Unpredictability Of Where You're Going To Be In Ten Years From Now - All Of Those Things Are Weighing On Us, And Yet There Is A Certain Glimmer Of Control. If You Act A Certain Way, And Talk A Certain Way, You're Going To Draw Certain Forces To You.

Thinking

Cities

Years

If You're Serious About Being An Architect, You've Got To Learn How To Take Responsibility.

Responsibility

Serious

Architect

You Have To Be Optimistic. I Still Have Doubts And Conflicts, But The Bottom Line Is, I Believe In The Future.

Believe

Optimistic

Doubt

Architecture Has Always Been A Very Idealistic Profession. It's About Making The World A Better Place And It Works Over The Generations Because People Go On Vacation And They Look For It.

Vacation

People

Generations

Art Is About People. I Think The Discussion About Whether Architecture Is Art Or Not Is Lamebrain.

Art

Thinking

People

If You're Serious About Being An Architect, You've Got To Learn How To Take Responsibility. It's Not Fluff. You Have To Do Every Detail On Every Bloody Piece Of The Building. You Have To Know How The Engineering Works. You Have To Know How The Fittings Go Together. You Have To Master The Mechanical, Electrical, Acoustical - Everything.

Responsibility

Together

Serious

I Know I Draw Without Taking My Pen Off The Page. I Just Keep Going, And That My Drawings I Think Of Them As Scribbles. I Don't Think They Mean Anything To Anybody Except To Me, And Then At The End Of The Day, The End Of The Project, They Wheel Out These Little Drawings And They're Damn Close To What The Finished Building Is And It's The Drawing.

Mean

Thinking

Drawing

Erich Mendelsohn's Drawings Are Expressive And Beautiful. If He'd Had The Computers We Have Now, Everything I've Done He Would Have Done Before Me. I Would Have Had To Figure Out Something Else.

Beautiful

Drawing

Done

Generally In Our World, Whether In Architecture Or Almost Anywhere Else, We Devalue The Artist, And Schools At Whatever Level Shut People Down.

School

Artist

Our World

Just Because You Are An Architect And Make Decent Buildings Does Not Mean That You Can Suddenly Become A Set Designer For One Of The Best Avant-garde Dancers In The World.

Mean

Dancer

Doe

It's Not Elitist To Acknowledge That Everyone Has A Unique Signature And Everyone Is Different.

Unique

Signatures

Different

I Think The Biggest Problem With 'industrial' Architecture Is That It's Lost Its Sense Of Humanity. Minimalist Stuff Drains All The Humanity Out Of It. That Idea Works Great For The Money Thing, But It Doesn't Work Great For The Feeling Thing.

Thinking

Feelings

Humanity

The Message I Hope To Have Sent Is Just The Example Of Being Yourself.

Being Yourself

Example

Messages

Anybody I Talk To Agrees That Maybe 2 Percent Of The Building Environment Since The War, We Could Call Architecture.

War

Architecture

Environment

I Attended A Lecture By A Gray-haired Old Man From Finland, Who Later I Discovered Was The Architect Alvar Aalto. I Was Very Moved. I Wasn't Interested In Architecture, But It Was A Moving Thing I've Never Forgotten.

Moving

Men

Lectures

When I Was A Kid, My Father Didn't Really Have Much Hope For Me. He Thought I Was A Dreamer; He Didn't Think I Would Amount To Anything. My Mother Also.

Mother

Father

Kids

I Don't Micromanage The Interiors. People Ask Me To And I Say No. I Don't Want To Control Everything.

People

Want

Ask Me

The Fact Is I'm An Opportunist. I'll Take Materials Around Me, Materials On My Table, And Work With Them As I'm Searching For An Idea That Works.

Ideas

Tables

Facts

We Should Celebrate Variety Rather Than Conformity And Allow People To Express Themselves. That We Don't Is More Of Our Denial.

People

Denial

Conformity

Most Of What's Around Us Is Banal. We Live With It. We Accept It As Inevitable.

Accepting

Inevitable

The Whole Can Be Greater Than The Sum Of It's Parts, That We All Have Something To Put In The Pie To Make It Better, And That The Collaborative Interaction Works.

Pie

Interaction

Whole

With Computers We Can Work Everything Out From The Beginning.

Computer

I Don't Know Whose Box I'm In, And I Don't Really Care.

Care

Boxes

Knows

We Don't See The Banality, But We Accept Banality. We Accept It As Inevitable, And It's Not.

Accepting

Banality

Inevitable

If I Knew Where I Was Going, I Wouldn't Do It. When I Can Predict Or Plan It, I Don't Do It.

Plans

Ifs

I Can

Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.

2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.

2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.

2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.

3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.

3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.

3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.

4. Proper Usage of Quotes

4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.

4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.

4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).

5. Common Mistakes to Avoid

5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.

5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.

5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.

6. Quotes in Different Contexts

6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.

6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.

6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.

7. Punctuation and Formatting

Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:

Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.

Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.

Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.

8. Ethical Considerations

Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes

Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.

Conclusion

Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.

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