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.
Interpretation
Cesar Pelli emphasizes the importance of context and culture in architectural design over adopting a personal style for marketing purposes.
In this quote, Cesar Pelli argues that while having a recognizable style might help with marketing an architect's work, it is far more crucial to consider the unique characteristics of each location when designing buildings. He suggests that architecture should respond to the specific cultural and functional needs of its environment rather than conforming to a personal aesthetic or trend.
In practice
In a presentation about sustainable architecture, you might quote Pelli to highlight the need for responsiveness to local environments.
Architecture adds dimensions to my life that would be impossible to acquire if I retired. The beautiful thing about architecture is that every project is brand new. I am forced to renew myself with every project. Isn't that wonderful?
I'm particularly interested in the public role that all buildings play. I believe that we architects should try to go beyond our basic obligations to the public, and our opportunities to do so are many.
I'm a bad customer for my own buildings! If I'm choosing an apartment, I choose one about five or six stories high so that I can see the people, the trees, and the world on the street. Beyond that, I lose contact with the ground!
I don't know why people hire architects and then tell them what to do.
All buildings, large or small, public or private, have a public face, a facade; they therefore, without exception, have a positive or negative effect on the quality of the public realm, enriching or impoverishing it in a lasting and radical manner. The architecture of the city and public space is a matter of common concern to the same degree as laws and language—they are the foundation of civility and civilisation.
We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.
Modernist buildings exclude dialogue, and the void that they create around themselves is not a public space but a desertification
Buildings are 'humane' only when they promote peaceful human co-existence.
A profound design process eventually makes the patron, the architect, and every occasional visitor in the building a slightly better human being.
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