Television is bubble-gum for the mind.
The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines - so they should go as far as possible from home to build their first buildings.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Architects must acknowledge their mistakes publicly, unlike physicians who can hide theirs. This suggests that architects should gain experience away from home.
This quote by Frank Lloyd Wright emphasizes the accountability that architects face compared to other professionals, such as physicians, who can conceal their errors. It also suggests that aspiring architects should seek opportunities to learn and grow in diverse environments, away from their familiar surroundings, allowing them to experiment and refine their skills before undertaking significant projects closer to home.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During an architecture workshop, this quote can be used to inspire students to learn from their failures.
More from Frank Lloyd Wright
All quotes →Harvard takes perfectly good plums as students, and turns them into prunes.
Toleration and liberty are the foundations of a great republic.
Human beings can be beautiful. If they are not beautiful it is entirely their own fault. It is what they do to themselves that makes them ugly. The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it.
There is nothing more uncommon than common sense.
Nature is the only body of God that we shall ever see.
Similar quotes
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If you look at the Earth without architecture, its sometimes a little bit unpleasant. So there is this basic human need to do shelter in the broadest sense of the word, whether its a movie theater or a simple log cabin in the mountains. This is the core of architecture: To provide a space for human beings.
Buildings are 'humane' only when they promote peaceful human co-existence.
I realize that having a style would be very beneficial for my practice from a marketing standpoint, but I can't do it. I believe my responsibilities as an architect are to design the most appropriate building for the place. Each place has a distinct culture and function, which for me requires an appropriate answer.
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.
Most of the wonderful places in the world were not made by architects but by the people.