Mario Botta Quotes

Products have to be designed in a way that they are comprehensible.

Good design is making something intelligible and memorable. Great design is making something memorable and meaningful.

When museums are built these days, architects, directors, and trustees seem most concerned about social space: places to have parties, eat dinner, wine-and-dine donors. Sure, these are important these days - museums have to bring in money - but they gobble up space and push the art itself far away from the entrance.

Design must be functional, and functionality must be translated into visual aesthetics without any reliance on gimmicks that have to be explained.

Good design should be honest.

The chief virtue that language can have is clearness, and nothing detracts from it so much as the use of unfamiliar words.

Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to keep things simple.

A building has integrity, just as a man and just as seldom! It must be true to its own idea, have its own form, and serve its own purpose!

The problem is not software 'friendliness'. It is conceptual clarity. A globe does not say, 'good morning'. It is simple and clear, not 'friendly'.

Often I forget that design is really about removing things: optimizing the flow of information, the display, so there are the fewest elements possible, but still they preserve the essence of the subject.

I don't believe architecture has to speak too much. It should remain silent and let nature in the guise of sunlight and wind

It takes a lot of effort to make a building look effortless.

Architecture exhibits the greatest extent of the difference from nature which may exist in works of art. It involves all the powers of design, and is sculpture and painting inclusively. It shows the greatness of man, and should at the same time teach him humility.

Complexity has and will maintain a strong fascination for many people. It is true that we live in a complex world and strive to solve inherently complex problems, which often do require complex mechanisms. However, this should not diminish our desire for elegant solutions, which convince by their clarity and effectiveness. Simple, elegant solutions are more effective, but they are harder to find than complex ones, and they require more time, which we too often believe to be unaffordable

Complexity creates confusion, simplicity focus.

My precept to all who build, is, that the owner should be an ornament to the house, and not the house to the owner.

The design of a temple depends on symmetry, the principles of which must be most carefully observed by the architect.

I want to do interiors, furniture. I want to do architecture, although I'm not an architect. Nor am I a trained interior designer.

Complexity is the enemy of clarity

I've grown tired of smoke and mirrors. I yearn for the clean, well-lighted place.

One of the most significant design principles is to omit the unimportant in order to emphasize the important.

Clearness is the ornament of deep thought.

Simplicity is not the absence of clutter.

Things that are good are good, and if one is responding to that goodness one is in contact with a truth from which one is getting something. The truth is doing us good. The truth of the sunshine, the truth of the rain, the truth of the fresh air, the truth of the wind in the trees, these are truths. And they are always accessible!

For architecture, nature provides only indications and analogies, not models to imitate.