To build means to make architecture real on the borders of knowledge.
Frei OttoRead
My architectural drive was to design new types of buildings to help poor people, especially following natural disasters and catastrophes... I will use whatever time is left to me to keep doing what I have been doing, which is to help humanity.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a commitment to using architectural skills to improve the lives of those affected by disasters.
Frei Otto emphasizes the importance of innovative architecture designed specifically for helping underprivileged communities, particularly in the aftermath of natural disasters. His dedication to using his remaining time to contribute to humanitarian efforts highlights a deep sense of responsibility and purpose in his work, aiming to uplift those in need through thoughtful design and construction.
In practice
In a speech about community resilience, one could reference this quote to highlight the role of architecture in disaster recovery.
To build means to make architecture real on the borders of knowledge.
Why should we build very large spaces when they are not necessary? We can design halls spanning several kilometres and covering a whole city, but we have to ask, what does it really make? What does society really need?
Buildings are 'humane' only when they promote peaceful human co-existence.
Most architects think in drawings, or did think in drawings; today, they think on the computer monitor. I always tried to think three dimensionally. The interior eye of the brain should be not flat but three dimensional so that everything is an object in space. We are not living in a two-dimensional world.
The space within becomes the reality of the building.
People can inhabit anything. And they can be miserable in anything and ecstatic in anything. More and more I think that architecture has nothing to do with it. Of course, that's both liberating and alarming.
I'm particularly interested in the public role that all buildings play. I believe that we architects should try to go beyond our basic obligations to the public, and our opportunities to do so are many.
Contemporary architects tend to impose modernity on something. There is a certain concern for history but it’s not very deep. I understand that time has changed, we have evolved. But I don’t want to forget the beginning. A lasting architecture has to have roots.
Modern buildings of our time are so huge that one must group them. Often the space between these buildings is as important as the buildings themselves.
The criteria for architecture after the tsunami is humbleness
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