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I don't know why people hire architects and then tell them what to do.
Frank Gehry
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote highlights the irony of clients dictating terms to architects whom they hire for their expertise.

Frank Gehry's quote addresses the strange phenomenon where clients, despite hiring architects for their creativity and expertise, impose their own ideas and constraints on the design process. This can undermine the architect's vision and diminish the potential for innovative and original designs, emphasizing the importance of trust and collaboration in the client-architect relationship.

Themes

ArchitectureDesignCreativityCollaborationExpertise

In practice

Example use cases

In an architecture presentation discussing the need for client trust.

More from Frank Gehry

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.
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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.
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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.
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An architect is given a program, budget, place, and schedule. Sometimes the end product rises to art - or at least people call it that.
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