What the people are within, the buildings express without.
Louis SullivanRead
But the building's identity resided in the ornament.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that the essence of a building is captured through its decorative elements.
Louis Sullivan emphasizes the importance of ornamentation in architecture, arguing that a building's true character and identity stem from its decorative features. This perspective highlights how aesthetic details contribute significantly to the overall perception and significance of architectural design, suggesting that beauty and art are integral to the essence of any structure.
Themes
ArchitectureOrnamentIdentityDesignArt
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about architectural history, one might quote this to discuss the role of ornamentation.
More from Louis Sullivan
All quotes βOnce you learn to look at architecture not merely as an art more or less well or more or less badly done, but as a social manifestation, the critical eye becomes clairvoyant.
Louis SullivanRead
Every building is like a person. Single and unrepeatable.
Louis SullivanRead
How strange it seems that education, in practice, so often means suppression: that instead of leading the mind outward to the light of day it crowds things in upon it that darken and weary it.
Louis SullivanRead
The architect who combines in his being the powers of vision, of imagination, of intellect, of sympathy with human need and the power to interpret them in a language vernacular and time--- is he who shall create poems in stone.
Louis SullivanRead
It was the spirit animating the mass and flowing from it, and it expressed the individuality of the building.
Louis SullivanRead
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