Christian de Portzamparc Quotes

[O]ne can dream so much better in a room where there are pretty things.

Make your physical surroundings as beautiful as possible.

The dialogue of architecture has been centered too long around the idea of truth.

Building design isn't trendy.

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

I try firstly to make buildings humane.

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

I have a very beautiful room that in my house that we bought in Princeton. It's glass on three sides, and you'd think that's the perfect place to write. Somehow in that nice room I feel too exposed, and I can notice I'm too distracted by things going on, so I end up writing in a not-very-nice office bedroom.

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.

The architect should strive continually to simplify; the ensemble of the rooms should then be carefully considered that comfort and utility may go hand in hand with beauty.

Well-building hat three conditions. Commodity, firmness, and delight.

In the matter of furnishing, I find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness.

It is as necessary for man to live in beauty rather than ugliness as it is necessary for him to have food for an aching belly or rest for a weary body.

Beautiful things comfort; they bring a real clarity and ease. We have to continue to make our environments beautiful - it's sort of like a prayer. If you surround yourself with beautiful things, you have a better life - one with more oxygen.

We need to pay attention to the whole space - every room, chair and table - so it feels uplifting and inspiring.

When I make chairs, they have legs; they can go anywhere in the world. Interiors are a different responsibility. A house is a representation of where you are, and it has to be right for the place.

Design should revolve around what the main purpose of the space is. If you plan to live there, it should reflect your personality.

I love walking into an empty room and imagining what it could be.

Beautiful objects, ideas, even beautiful people all share the power to lift the spirits and motivate creativity while at the same time soothing the soul.

a perfect piece of architecture kindles that aimless reverie, which bears the soul we know not whither.

Our dreams prove that to imagine - to dream about things that have not happened - is among mankind's deepest needs.

I leave these speculations to others. It’s quite possible that my work represents a search for beauty in the most prosaic and ordinary places. One doesn’t have to be in some faraway dreamland in order to find beauty.

The seconds of presence are where most inspiration comes. There are sunsets that promote it.

A lot of my ideas come from McNally Jackson bookstore. One of my favorite things to do is just go there and look through architecture books and interior design books. Something about the aesthetics of space and beautiful images works with my brain.

Life and art are not two different things.