The difference between a builder and an architect is that an architect also cares about desire, about dreams.
Renzo PianoRead
When you design a building, you start from a general philosophy, and you come down, and you start from detail and come up. Only the theoretical architect believes that you can make the concept and then sometime, somebody will come to build it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of both overarching ideas and fine details in architecture.
Renzo Piano highlights the dual process of designing a building, where one begins with a broad philosophical concept and progressively works towards specific details while also acknowledging that effective architecture requires collaboration between conceptual thinking and practical execution. He criticizes the notion held by some theoretical architects that one can purely conceptualize a building without considering the tangible process of construction that brings those ideas to life.
Themes
ArchitectureDesignDetailsPhilosophyConstruction
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation on urban planning, this quote can emphasize the balance between vision and execution.
More from Renzo Piano
All quotes →You have to accept as an architect to be exposed to criticism. Architecture should not rely on full harmony.
Renzo PianoRead
I don't like the idea that the first preparation when you start to design your building has to put your label. I think this is not fair. It's not fair to the building or to the people, to the client, because every building tells a different story.
Renzo PianoRead
There is something about giving everything to your profession. In Italian, an obsession is not necessarily negative. It's the art of putting all your energy into one thing; it's the art of transforming even what you eat for lunch into architecture.
Renzo PianoRead
I came to architecture from building. Because my father was a builder, everybody was - and is - a builder in my family.
Renzo PianoRead
In architecture you should live for 150 years, because you have to learn in the first 75 years.
Renzo PianoRead
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