Jean Nouvel Quotes

Everything we design is a response to the specific climate and culture of a particular place.

It's not enough to have a hacker culture anymore. You have to have a design culture, too.

At its heart, engineering is about using science to find creative, practical solutions. It is a noble profession.

The Swedish engineer who invented the zip fastener made a greater intellectual leap than many scientists do in a lifetime.

About half my designs are controlled fantasy, 15 percent are total madness and the rest are bread-and-butter designs.

I think you need to, as an architect, understand the essence of a place and create a building that feels like it resonates with the culture of a place. So my buildings in India or in Kansas City or in Arkansas or in Singapore, they come out different because the places are so different.

To create architecture is to put in order. Put what in order? Function and objects.

I always tend to think, even in residential projects, about what a space is being asked to do - where is it located, what are the circumstances, where can I attack the problem, so to speak. How can you create a narrative for people moving through it? How can you convey its character?

A designer is someone who constructs while he thinks, someone for whom planning and making go together.

I realize that having a style would be very beneficial for my practice from a marketing standpoint, but I can't do it. I believe my responsibilities as an architect are to design the most appropriate building for the place. Each place has a distinct culture and function, which for me requires an appropriate answer.

If you take a Baroque commode and put a Baroque clock on top of it, maybe it is not so interesting as when you put a computer on top of it. Then you see both items in a new way.

Often the most important moment in the design process is figuring out what the right question is.

I remember someone once said there is a practical aspect to my designs, and I remember thinking, 'That doesn't sound so creative,' but that is actually the truth. There is a practicality to it. I don't design just to design. There is a reason and, hopefully, an interesting reason behind it - that is where my creativity comes in.

The most creative person is not the person who can come up with the best idea; it's the one who can take that group of things on the table and assemble them in the greatest multiple of unique ways.

Creativity is a huge part of my game as a player. It helps open doors which others don't see.

The way we do our architecture is to show that we can come up with our own solutions. We don't just take orders.

I try to just focus on what feels right to me when I am conceiving it, conceptualizing, designing, etc. and then talk it through with the team and listen to what they have to say. This kind of thing is a team effort, and working with a great team is the most important part of filmmaking for me.

I get to do some unbelievably layered things. The material that I'm given is so complex, and I'm so grateful for it, so I welcome any opportunities to push boundaries.

Remarkable work often comes from making choices when everyone else feels as though there is no choice.

Design is a response to a specific problem. You are given a problem to solve, and then you let the problem itself tell you what your solution is.

We could focus our efforts on discovering solutions that work uniquely for us.

I love working with technology because it allows me to follow my imagination and to invent new things.

When I was 5 or 6 years old, I never wanted toys; I wanted electrical parts so I could build things. And I was better at taking things apart and putting them back together, but I always had extra pieces left over, so I think it was an early warning that I was a better designer than an engineer.

The sudden hunch, the creative leap of mind that "sees" in a flash how to solve a problem in a simple way, is something quite different from general intelligence.

The content could be done anyplace, but the real invention is the architecture. The architecture is the only work that really defines a new way of doing things. I think this point is fundamental.