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.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of a building's functionality and meaning to its occupants over its aesthetic appeal.
David Chipperfield's quote highlights the potential pitfalls of prioritizing architectural aesthetics to an extreme degree, suggesting that a building should serve a purpose and resonate with its users rather than merely striving for visual grandeur. He makes a case for designs that are meaningful and functional to the everyday lives of people, rather than catering solely to the spectacle expected by architects or the industry.
In practice
This quote would be ideal for a discussion on sustainable architecture at a conference.
I think that the point of being an architect is to help raise the experience of everyday living, even a little. Putting a window where people would really like one. Making sure a shaving mirror in a hotel bathroom is at the right angle. Making bureaucratic buildings that are somehow cheerful.
Buildings are 'humane' only when they promote peaceful human co-existence.
Contemporary architects tend to impose modernity on something. There is a certain concern for history but it’s not very deep. I understand that time has changed, we have evolved. But I don’t want to forget the beginning. A lasting architecture has to have roots.
We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.
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.
Why should we build very large spaces when they are not necessary? We can design halls spanning several kilometres and covering a whole city, but we have to ask, what does it really make? What does society really need?
Light creates ambience and feel of a place, as well as the expression of a structure.
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