Jean Nouvel Quotes

The future of architecture is culture.

At a certain point, I just put the building and the art impulse together. I decided that building was a legitimate way to make sculpture.

If a building becomes architecture, then it is art.

I don't know any architects that I respect who don't have their own voice. I think the difference between architecture and the other arts is your immersion in reality.

Architecture is exposed to life. If its body is sensitive enough, it can assume a quality that bears witness to past life.

Designis a revelation to me. It's like taking something that is not alive and giving it form, shape, substance, and life.

I work a little bit like a sculptor. When I start, my first idea for a building is with the material. I believe architecture is about that. It's not about paper, it's not about forms. It's about space and material.

Architecture is invention.

For me, architecture is the means, not the end. It's a means of making different life forms possible.

Architecture is measured against the past; you build in the future, and you try to imagine the future.

As an architect, you have to provide a shelter to enjoy art. And you have to love art. It's like when you make a concert hall. You must love music. This is the reason why you make the space, to enjoy music - making a space for art is the same thing.

Architecture remains a passion and a subject I'm very interested in. I learned a great deal from studying it and working in it.

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

Music, first of all, is completely about abstraction, which is exactly what architecture is not. In a way, it has been incredibly constructive to know what true abstraction is. So you don't fall into the trap of thinking that what you do is abstract.

I love architecture.

Architecture struck me between the eye and the eyeball.

I think there is a new awareness in this 21st century that design is as important to where and how we live as it is for museums, concert halls and civic buildings.

I call architecture frozen music.

I'm into designing houses and interior design. I like change. I like creating things out of nothing.

Somehow, architecture alters the way we think about the world and the way we behave. Any serious architecture, as a litmus test, has to be that.

I like to play with architecture! It's my favorite game.

My passion and great enjoyment for architecture, and the reason the older I get the more I enjoy it, is because I believe we - architects - can effect the quality of life of the people.

I've always had an interest in design, and I have always loved creating things.

To me, architecture is an art, naturally, and it isn't architecture unless it's alive. Alive is what art is. If it's not alive, it's dead, and it's not art.

If I weren't involved with food, I'd be working in architecture. Design is that critical to me.