There is a danger when every building has to look spectacular; to look like it is changing the world. I don't care how a building looks if it means something, not to architects, but to the people who use it.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of a building's functionality and meaning to its occupants over its aesthetic appeal.
David Chipperfield's quote highlights the potential pitfalls of prioritizing architectural aesthetics to an extreme degree, suggesting that a building should serve a purpose and resonate with its users rather than merely striving for visual grandeur. He makes a case for designs that are meaningful and functional to the everyday lives of people, rather than catering solely to the spectacle expected by architects or the industry.
In practice
This quote would be ideal for a discussion on sustainable architecture at a conference.
I think that the point of being an architect is to help raise the experience of everyday living, even a little. Putting a window where people would really like one. Making sure a shaving mirror in a hotel bathroom is at the right angle. Making bureaucratic buildings that are somehow cheerful.
What is now called 'green architecture' is an opportunistic caricature of a much deeper consideration of the issues related to sustainability that architecture has been engaged with for many years. It was one of the first professions that was deeply concerned with these issues and that had an intellectual response to them.
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?
I don't know why people hire architects and then tell them what to do.
The criteria for architecture after the tsunami is humbleness
Architects design buildings; that's what we do, so we have to go with the flow; and, even though I'm still an old Leftie, global capitalism does have its good side. It's broken down barriers - the Berlin Wall, the Soviet Union - it's raised a lot of people up economically, and for architects, it has meant that we can work around the world.
Buildings are 'humane' only when they promote peaceful human co-existence.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.