Christopher Alexander Quotes

Speaking as a builder, if you start something, you must have a vision of the thing which arises from your instinct about preserving and enhancing what is there... If you're working correctly, the feeling doesn't wander about.

Men admire the man who can organize their wishes and thoughts in stone and wood and steel and brass.

My job the same as carpenter. What kind of house you want to build? What kind of food you want to make? You think your ingredients, your structure. Simple.

What I try to do is the art of building, and the art of building is the art of construction; it is not only about forms and shapes and images.

Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one.

The architect works in the territory of memory.

I am involved in the architecture of space.

I like building.

I love architecture.

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.

The difference between a builder and an architect is that an architect also cares about desire, about dreams.

Architecture is invention.

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

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

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Building a house is a lot like moviemaking. The attention to detail, the sense that you're doing something that has longevity.

I am an architect at heart. I designed every home I've ever had, plus my studio.

The first decent building I did with my own practice was a chapel in Taiwan.

I am very interested in architecture. I've been asked if I'd ever direct, but me, I'd rather build. It's very similar to directing, because you get to walk among this piece of art, to live in it, be surrounded by it, which is just thrilling.

See all these buildings, Russell? All these buildings were once a drawing on a piece of paper, and before that they were an idea in someone’s head. Any idea that you have, you can make manifest.

When you do not know what you are doing and what you are doing is the best - that is inspiration.

I'm always amazed by writers who tell me they plan everything at the beginning. I feel their writing days must be very bland.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.