Flexible Design Quotes

Hospitality is about trying to support multiple functions in one space.

The best kind of design isn't necessarily an object, a space, or a structure: it's a process- dynamic and adaptable.

In city planning, there is no limit to be fixed.

If you come in with all of the answers, you might create something that's very beautiful and powerful, but I think it will also seem sterile if you don't leave room for people to have their own reactions to it.

There is a change in the view about how condominiums are designed. People used to make prototype apartments and reproduce these boxes hundreds and even thousands of times, and then ask people to conform.

My architecture tends to be legible, light and flexible. You can read it. You look at a building, and you can see how it is constructed. I put the structure outside.

When they first built the University of California at Irvine they just put the buildings in. They did not put any sidewalks, they just planted grass. The next year, they came back and put the sidewalks where the trails were in the grass. Perl is just that kind of language. It is not designed from first principles. Perl is those sidewalks in the grass.

I don't like stuff that can only go into one set; I want stuff that can be applied across sets. It's a more real Lego building experience. And, of course, it's the same from a manufacturing point of view. I want elements that are universal; that gives me the best economics and best utilisation of the mould.

Believe it or not, you actually need your phone to be able to flex a little bit.

A simple ballet wrap sweater heats the back muscles but is easy to put on or take off without disturbing a dancer's makeup or hair before a performance or during a workout.

One of the neat things about Gearbox that I love is, we don't look at our designs as a totalitarian regime and we're all really happy to let designers and creators within the studio explore in our space.

My hope is that light, flexible architecture might bring about a new and open society.

Our constitution, sir, is like a vessel just launched, and lying at the wharf, she is untried, you can hardly discover any one of her properties; it is not known how she will answer her helm, or lay her course; whether she will bear in safety the precious freight to be deposited in her hold. But, in this state, will the prudent merchant attempt alterations? Will he employ two thousand workmen to tear off the planking and take asunder the frame? He certainly will not. Let us gentlemen, fit out our vessel, set up her masts, and expand her sails, and be guided by the experiment in our alterations. If she sails upon an uneven keel, let us right her by adding weight where it is wanting. In this way, we may remedy her defects to the satisfaction of all concerned; but if we proceed now to make alterations, we may deface a beauty, or deform a well proportioned piece of workmanship ... .

[The internet] ought to be like clay, rather than a sculpture that you observe from a distance.

If you get basics that can be switched and piece it together, that is so important.

I've always wanted to learn how to hook rugs. A wonderful artist named Leslie Giuliani taught me how. The nice thing is you can change it as you go along.

The form is so malleable and can do so many things.

The only way to create a foundational document that could stand the test of time was to build in enough flexibility that later generations would be able to adapt it to their own needs and uses.

If you could build a house on a trampoline, that would suit me fine.

I always treat shows as though they could belong on either platform. I always design it for the bigger stage, but I love it on the smaller stage.