John Rocha Quotes

Stockholm is surely an urban planner's dream. Everything works. Everything looks good.

I wouldn't have the life I have without television. I wouldn't be looking out my apartment window onto the East River; I wouldn't be able to afford to have my mother with me this summer. So television has been very good to me.

I like decorative, functional things that I feel comfortable in.

I don't buy art. I'd rather buy a beautiful location or a beautiful site than buy art. A beautiful home is like owning a beautiful painting, except you can live in it.

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

A good home must be made, not bought. In the end, it's not track lighting or a sun room that brings light into a kitchen.

I don't think there is anything wrong with white space. I don't think it's a problem to have a blank wall.

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 bungalow had more to do with how Americans live today than any other building that has gone remotely by the name of architecture in our history.

People say that money is not the key to happiness, but I always figured if you have enough money, you can have a key made.

My buildings should have an emotional core - a space which, in itself, has an emotional nice feeling.

For me, the excitement in architecture revolves around the idea and the phenomenon of the experience of that idea. Residences offer almost immediate gratification. You can shape space, light, and materials to a degree that you sometimes can't in larger projects.

When I do a cooking class now, I tell people that the most important part is to read the recipe many times so you know what you're doing. What I don't tell them, though, is that sometimes I do parties where I'm rushing so much I don't have time to follow my own advice.

The space within becomes the reality of the building.

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

I create homes that feel like a home - it could be a palace or a mansion - but each one has a comfortable feeling.

Whatever your race, colour or creed in London, you still want your children to get on the housing ladder. You still want spaces in hospitals or GP surgeries, you want school places and you want space on the trains in the mornings.

Because I live and breathe design every day, sometimes I will come across an idea that is something I want to try. It often comes from an old hotel or an old restaurant, and I will adapt it to be residential.

Beautiful is difficult. I admire very much the courage of the people who have said, 'Let's do something different. Let's try to see if our environment will be more beautiful and our city will be more beautiful.'

When designing - whether it's a living room, event space, or tablescape - I always want guests to feel as though they are part of the experience.

Should not every apartment in which man dwells be lofty enough to create some obscurity overhead, where flickering shadows may play at evening about the rafters?

Architecture is really about well-being. I think that people want to feel good in a space... On the one hand it's about shelter, but it's also about pleasure. The intention is to really carve out of a city civic spaces and the more it is accessible to a much larger mass in public and it's about people enjoying that space. That makes life that much better. If you think about housing, education, whether schools and hospitals, these are all very interesting projects because in the way you interpret this special experience.

When I am doing things around the house - when I'm decorating, setting up furniture, putting out a vase of flowers, lighting my candles, my mind is always thinking, "What do I need to do to make this space peaceful and restful and comfortable so that when people walk into it, aesthetically they're heightened and enlightened?"

Bill Sofield has the ability to understand the architecture of a space and how to utilize it in the most beautiful way. He can create completely different styles for his clients based on who they are and what their taste is. Our efforts have always been collaborative, and I value what he brings to the table architecturally and aesthetically.

Other people's houses were always fascinating. As soon as you went through the door for the first time, you got the feel of the atmosphere, and so discovered something about the personalities of the people who lived there.