The difference between a builder and an architect is that an architect also cares about desire, about dreams.
Renzo PianoRead
Architecture is a very dangerous job. If a writer makes a bad book, eh, people don't read it. But if you make bad architecture, you impose ugliness on a place for a hundred years.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Bad architecture can have a long-lasting negative impact on a space, unlike a poorly written book.
Renzo Piano emphasizes the significant responsibility architects hold in shaping the environments in which we live. Unlike writers, whose unwritten works might only be seen by a few, architects' designs endure for generations, fundamentally affecting the aesthetics and functionality of a community for many years. This highlights the need for architectural integrity and foresight in design.
Themes
ArchitectureDesignResponsibilityBeautyImpact
In practice
Example use cases
A speech at an architecture conference discussing the ethical implications of design.
More from Renzo Piano
All quotes →You have to accept as an architect to be exposed to criticism. Architecture should not rely on full harmony.
Renzo PianoRead
I don't like the idea that the first preparation when you start to design your building has to put your label. I think this is not fair. It's not fair to the building or to the people, to the client, because every building tells a different story.
Renzo PianoRead
There is something about giving everything to your profession. In Italian, an obsession is not necessarily negative. It's the art of putting all your energy into one thing; it's the art of transforming even what you eat for lunch into architecture.
Renzo PianoRead
I came to architecture from building. Because my father was a builder, everybody was - and is - a builder in my family.
Renzo PianoRead
When you design a building, you start from a general philosophy, and you come down, and you start from detail and come up. Only the theoretical architect believes that you can make the concept and then sometime, somebody will come to build it.
Renzo PianoRead
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