Instead of using the machine as a metaphor for architecture, as Le Corbusier did, I use the human body. I want the public to know that it's them I'm designing for.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes designing architecture that is human-centric rather than machine-centric.
Michael Graves expresses a philosophy of architecture that prioritizes the human experience over mechanical or industrial design aesthetics. He contrasts traditional views, such as those of Le Corbusier, and emphasizes the importance of recognizing the users of a space, aiming to create designs that resonate with people's needs and feelings, making architecture a reflection of humanity itself.
In practice
This quote can be used in a presentation on modern architectural philosophy.
Form must never trump function. Some objects are made to look so smooth, you don't know where to pick them up or how to turn them on. If I'm designing a garlic press or cheese grater, I need my hand to fit comfortably on it. I like to know, instinctively, how to use it.
Good design should be available to everyone - and I do mean everyone. What I spent on the wheelchair I'm in could buy a small Mercedes. It's not only unfair to me; it's unfair to someone who's indigent but has the same needs. My goal is to make all objects affordable.
We've taken on health care in a big way in our office, ever since nine years ago when I was paralyzed. I was in eight different hospitals, three different rehab centers, and all the rooms were dreadful. As an architect, designer, and patient, I can do something to help.
I believe well-designed places and objects can actually improve healing, while poor design can inhibit it.
Museums and bookstores should feel, I think, like vacant lots - places where the demands on us are our own demands, where the spirit can find exercise in unsupervised play.
Creativity helps us realize that we don't have to understand everything. We can enjoy something -feel it and use it- without ever fully comprehending it.
The whole history of baseball has the quality of mythology.
A book is never a masterpiece: it becomes one. Genius is the talent of a dead man.
Journalism is concerned with events, poetry with feelings. Journalism is concerned with the look of the world, poetry with the feel of the world.
All of life in its complexity and beauty is forever minted in the gold of words.
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