Architectural Inspirational Quotes: A Curated Collection to Ignite Creativity

"Form Follows Function."

- Louis Sullivan

"Less is more."

- Rone

"A building is not just a place to be. It’s a way to be."

- Frank Lloyd Wright

"Form follows function—that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union."

- Frank Lloyd Wright

"I call architecture frozen music."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"God is in the details."

- Mies van der Rohe

"Architecture is not just about building. It's a means of improving people's quality of life."

- Diébédo Francis Kéré

"The future belongs to those who can innovate and recognize sustainability as the opportunity of our generation."

- James Corner

"There is no separation between architecture and nature; there is a connection."

- Toyo Ito

"Sustainability is not about doing less harm. It’s about doing more good."

- Jochen Zeitz

"All architecture is shelter, all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stimulates the persons in that space."

- Philip Johnson

"Architecture is about trying to make the world a little bit more like our dreams."

- Bjarke Ingels

"As an architect, you design for the present, with an awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially unknown."

- Norman Foster

"An architect’s designs must refer to the unquestionable perfection of the body’s symmetry and proportions. If a building is to create a sense of eurythmy, it is essential that it mirrors these natural laws of harmony and beauty."

- Vitruvius

"Life is architecture, and architecture is the mirror of life."

- I. M. Pei

"God is in the details"

- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

"Architecture is about trying to make the world a little more like our dreams."

- Bjarke Ingels

"Less is more"

- Rone

"Architecture is not about form, it’s about life."

- Bjarke Ingels

"Architecture is the triumph of human imagination over materials, methods, and men, to put man into possession of his own Earth."

- Frank Lloyd Wright

"The essence of architecture is space, light, and order."

- Le Corbusier

"Architecture is the thoughtful making of space."

- Louis Kahn

"Any work of architecture which does not express serenity is a mistake."

- Luis Barragán

"As an architect, you design for the present with an awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially unknown."

- Norman Foster

"To provide meaningful architecture is not to parody history but to articulate it."

- Daniel Libeskind

"There are no straight lines or sharp corners in nature."

- Antoni Gaudi

"The details are not the details. They make the design."

- Charles Eames

"The design of a building must first and foremost be functional; it must not only look good but also work well."

- Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

"The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization."

- Frank Lloyd Wright

"Architecture aims at eternity."

- Sir Christopher Wren

"Architecture is frozen music."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Form follows beauty."

- Oscar Niemeyer

"Architecture is really about well-being. I think that people want to feel good in a space… On the one hand it’s about shelter, but it’s also about pleasure."

- Zaha Hadid

"Architecture frames human existence and experience; it orchestrates light and space, movement and mood."

- Juhani Pallasmaa

"Good buildings come from good people, and all problems are solved by good design."

- Stephen Gardiner

"Nothing requires the architect’s care more than the due proportions of buildings."

- Vitruvius

"We shape our buildings: thereafter they shape us."

- Winston Churchill

"Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness."

- Frank Gehry

"Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design."

- Charles Eames

"Form ever follows function."

- Louis Sullivan

"Architecture is the reaching out for the truth."

- Louis Kahn

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

- Leonardo da Vinci

"Architecture is the learned game, correct & magnificent, of forms assembled in the light."

- Le Corbusier

"An idea is salvation by imagination."

- Frank Lloyd Wright

"To create one must first question everything."

- Eileen Gray

"We must learn to live with nature, rather than against it."

- Richard Rogers

"The role of the architect, or any creative person, is to make space for those who have no voice."

- Daniel Libeskind

"Good design encourages a viewer to want to learn more."

- Norman Foster

"I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity."

- I. M. Pei

"A house is a machine for living in."

- Le Corbusier

"Great buildings that move the spirit have always been rare. In every case they are unique, poetic, products of the heart."

- Arthur Erickson

"Functionality is not an independent phenomenon, but a part of design, and its importance is determined by its relevance to design."

- Alvar Aalto

"Architecture begins where engineering ends."

- Walter Gropius

"Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space."

- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

"Buildings should serve people, not the other way around."

- John Portman

"The job of buildings is to improve human relations: architecture must ease them, not make them worse."

- Ralph Erskine

"The sun never knew how great it was until it hit the side of a building."

- Louis Kahn

"Buildings, too, are children of Earth and Sun."

- Frank Lloyd Wright

"I believe that the way people live can be directed a little by architecture."

- Tadao Ando

"Our job is to see that the principles of design are translated into meaningful relationships between people and their environment."

- Thomas Heatherwick

"I see the world as an amazing building that deserves to be appreciated, taken care of, and protected."

- Vincent Callebaut

"Architecture is a visual art, and the buildings speak for themselves."

- Julia Morgan

"Good building come from good people, and all problems are solved by good design."

- Stephen Gardiner

"Modern architecture does not mean the use of immature new materials; the main thing is to refine materials in a more human direction."

- Alvar Aalto

"Without and architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization."

- Louis Kahn

"The most beautiful house in the world is the one that you build for yourself."

- Witold Rybczynski

"If you weren’t an optimist, it would be impossible to be an architect."

- Norman Foster

"You can learn from the past, but you can’t continue to be in the past; history is not a substitute for imagination."

- Frank Gehry

"Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light."

- Le Corbusier

"The limits of architecture are its strength. Its inability to give form to a transient idea. Its inevitable tendency to stabilize, is the latent power of architecture."

- David Chipperfield

"Creativity is intelligence having fun."

- Albert Einstein

"Design is thinking made visual."

- Saul Bass

"Architecture is basically a container of something. I hope they will enjoy not so much the teacup, but the tea."

- Yoshio Taniguchi

"Architecture arouses sentiments in man. The architect’s task, therefore, is to make those sentiments precise."

- Adolf Loos

"God is in the Details."

- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

"Light, God’s eldest daughter, is a principal beauty in a building."

- Thomas Fuller

"Form follows function."

- Louis Sullivan

"The straight line belongs to men, the curved one to God."

- Antoni Gaudi

"Architecture is not based on concrete and steel and the elements of the soil. It’s based on wonder."

- Daniel Libeskind

"Architecture is the will of the age conceived in spatial terms."

- Mies van der Rohe

"Space is the breath of art."

- Frank Lloyd Wright

"Tradition is a challenge to innovation."

- Alvaro Siza Vieira

"I am an eyewitness to the ways in which people relate to themselves and to each other, and my work is a way of scooping and ladling that experience."

- Richard Neutra

"Even a brick wants to be something."

- Louis Kahn

"Architecture is basically the design of interiors, the art of organizing interior space."

- Philip Johnson

"A profound design process eventually makes the patron, the architect, and every occasional visitor in the building a slightly better human being."

- Juhani Pallasmaa

"People ignore design that ignores people."

- Frank Chimero

"The first gesture of an architect is to draw a perimeter; in other words, to separate the microclimate from the macro space outside. This in itself is a sacred act. Architecture in itself conveys this idea of limiting space. It’s a limit between the finite and the infinite. From this point of view, all architecture is sacred."

- Mario Botta

"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."

- David Chipperfield

"A room is not a room without natural light."

- Louis Kahn

"Minimalism is an appreciation of space."

- Jack Kerouac

"Architecture is inhabited sculpture."

- Constantin Brancusi

"I don’t believe architecture has to speak too much. It should remain silent and let nature in the guise of sunlight and wind."

- Tadao Ando

"Innovation is an evolutionary process, so it's not necessary to be radical all the time."

- Marc Newson

"When we build, let us think that we build forever."

- John Ruskin

"Good architecture is like a good therapy session, a good marriage, a good poem – gently and almost invisibly allowing you to be you, as flawed and as beautiful as you are."

- Robert Sullivan

"In pure architecture the smallest detail should have a meaning or serve a purpose."

- Augustus W. N. Pugin

"I try to give people a different way of looking at their surroundings. That is art to me."

- Maya Lin

"Architecture is not about space but about time."

- Vito Acconci

"I like ruins because what remains is not the total design, but the clarity of thought, the naked structure, the spirit of the thing."

- Tadao Ando

"To create, one must first question everything."

- Eileen Gray

"Buildings are deeply emotive structures which form our psyche."

- David Adjaye

"Architecture is not based on concrete and steel, and the elements of the soil. It's based on wonder."

- Daniel Libeskind

"Each new situation requires a new architecture."

- Jean Nouvel

"Architecture arouses sentiments in man. The architect's task, therefore, is to make those sentiments more precise."

- Adolf Loos

"You’ve got to bumble forward into the unknown."

- Frank Gehry

"When an architect is asked what his best building is, he usually answers, “the next one.”"

- Emilio Ambasz

"Whatever good things we build end up building us."

- Jim Rohn

"A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines."

- Frank Lloyd Wright

"Architecture is the stage on which we live our lives."

- Mariam Kamara

"Architecture is not an inspirational business, it’s a rational procedure to do sensible and hopefully beautiful things."

- Harry Seidler

"Architecture is about public spaces held by buildings."

- Richard Rogers

"A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines."

- Frank Lloyd Wright

"There are no straight lines or sharp corners in nature. Therefore, buildings must have no straight lines or sharp corners."

- Antoni Gaudi

"There are 360 degrees, so why stick to one?"

- Zaha Hadid

"As designers, we have such power to make design change the world. We really need to make better use of our platform and do stuff that is useful."

- Yinka Ilori

"I want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares."

- Saul Bass

"My work is not about “form follows function”, but “form follows beauty” or, even better, “form follows feminine”."

- Oscar Niemeyer

"The great opportunity of contemporary architecture is that anything is possible now."

- Rem Koolhaas

"The architecture we remember is that which never consoles or sanctifies, but challenges and surprises us."

- Peter Eisenman

"Architecture is the stage on which we live."

- Sean Godsell

"One of the great beauties of architecture is that each time, it is like life starting all over again."

- Renzo Piano

"Any work of architecture that does not express serenity is a mistake."

- Luis Barragán

"As a building is man’s bodily covering, so architecture is the enclosing envelope of all the arts."

- Vitruvius

"Order and arrangement, symmetry and definiteness, are the qualities that give value to architecture."

- Vitruvius

"Architecture aims at Eternity."

- Sir Christopher Wren

"Originality consists of returning to the origin."

- Antoni Gaudi

"When I’m working on a problem, I never think about beauty. But when I’ve finished, if the solution is not beautiful I know it’s wrong."

- Buckminster Fuller

"The art of landscape architecture design is not simply the arrangement of objects on the ground but the thoughtful and deliberate orchestration of all the elements and spaces that make up a landscape."

- Laurie Olin

"Not many architects have the luxury to reject significant things."

- Rem Koolhaas

"Landscape architecture is the art of creating places for people to live, work, play, learn, and heal."

- American Society of Landscape Architects

"Landscape design is an optimistic profession. We shape the landscape and in turn, it shapes us."

- Mary Reynolds

"The best thing about architecture is that it’s everywhere."

- Philip Johnson

"Architecture is the art of how to waste space."

- Philip Johnson

"The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding."

- Leonardo da Vinci

"Architecture is not an inspirational business, it’s a rational procedure to do sensible and hopefully beautiful things; that’s all."

- I.M Pei

"Architecture is the bony structure of civilization."

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"I don’t know why people hire architects and then tell them what to do."

- Frank Gehry

"Landscape architecture is the art of arranging land and water to meet the practical needs and aspirations of humanity."

- Ian McHarg

"The door handle is the handshake of the building."

- Juhani Pallasmaa

"I think you never stop learning."

- Norman Foster

"There is a Nigerian parable that says, "You shouldn't throw stones as a bird may fly away." If someone has a passion then let them do it. Let people be what they want to be."

- Yinka Ilori

"You can’t change the world with pretty buildings."

- Peter Eisenman

"Architecture belongs to culture, not to civilization."

- Alvar Aalto

"We do not create the work. I believe we, in fact, are discoverers."

- Glenn Murcutt

"Simplicity is the key to brilliance."

- Bruce Lee

"Architecture should be dedicated to keeping the outside out and the inside in."

- Leonard Baskin

"You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do."

- C.G. Jung

"A real building is one on which the eye can light and stay lit."

- Ezra Pound

"Any architectural work that does not express serenity is an error."

- Luis Barragán

"We must begin to understand what drives this obsession with growth."

- Glenn Murcutt

"Almost every successful person begins with two beliefs: the future can be better than the present, and I have the power to make it so."

- David Brooks

"The Sun does not realize how wonderful it is until after a room is made."

- Louis Kahn

"A design isn't finished until someone is using it."

- Brenda Laurel

"Everything is designed. Few things are designed well."

- Brian Reed

"Practice safe design: Use a concept."

- Petrula Vrontikis

"Architecture is a dangerous mix of power and importance."

- Rem Koolhaas

"The most innovative designers consciously reject the standard option box and cultivate an appetite for thinking wrong."

- Marty Neumeier

"Architecture never derived its force from stability of culture, but rather from the expression of those moments when that sense of stability slipped."

- Mark Wigley

"Design is where science and art break even."

- Mieke Gerritzen

"Hell, there are no rules here; We're trying to accomplish something."

- Thomas Edison

"Light, God's eldest daughter, is a principal beauty in a building."

- Thomas Fuller

"The desire to reach for the sky runs very deep in the human psyche."

- César Pelli

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

- Frank Gehry

"Architecture can't fully represent the chaos and turmoil that are part of the human personality, but you need to put some of that turmoil into the architecture, or it isn't real."

- Frank Stella

"For the most part things never get built the way they were drawn."

- Maya Lin

"The acceptance of certain realities doesn't preclude idealism. It can lead to certain breakthroughs."

- Rem Koolhaas

"Freedom is from within."

- Frank Lloyd Wright

"Ignorance is bliss... with this innocence you can create and question a lot of things."

- Kunle Adeyemi

"Dyslexia made me realize that people who say 'but you can't do that' aren't actually very important. I don't take 'no' too seriously."

- Richard Rogers

"All architecture is great architecture after sunset; perhaps architecture is really a nocturnal art, like the art of fireworks."

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

"The function of design is letting design function."

- Commeren

"The fundamental failure of most graphic, product, architectural and even urban design is its insistence on serving the God of Looking-Good rather than the God of Being-Good."

- Richard Saul Wurman

"I don’t build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build."

- Ayn Rand

"I'm convinced that without bad design, the world would be a far less stimulating place; we would have nothing to marvel over and nothing to be nostalgic about."

- Carrie Phillips

"The best landscapes reveal themselves gradually, like the best love affairs."

- Piet Oudolf

"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library."

- Jorge Luis Borges

"In the end only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you."

- Gautama Buddha

"Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step in your life."

- Steve Maraboli

"I love my job. What would I retire to?"

- Richard Rogers

"Would they call me a diva if I were a guy?"

- Zaha Hadid

"Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive."

- Hafez

"I am still learning."

- Michelangelo

"Enjoy it. Because it’s happening."

- Stephen Chbosky

"Very often the opinion of the clients must be disregarded in their own interest."

- John M. Johnson

"It is legendary how architectural lectures can be incredibly boring."

- Bjarke Ingels

"Simple things become complicated when you expect too much."

- Wilson Kanadi

"Architect. One who drafts a plan of your house, and plans a draft of your money."

- Ambrose Bierce

"Being a famous designer is like being a famous dentist."

- Noreen Morioka

"We don’t create a fantasy world to escape reality, we create it to be able to stay."

- Lynda Barry

"Great things never come from comfort zones."

"It’s kind of fun to do the impossible."