Dictums of Famous Architects:

Architects Dictums
SULLIVAN, LOUIS “Form follows function.”

GAUDI, ANTONIO “Form does not necessarily follow function.”

WRIGHT, FRANK LLOYD “Form follows function- that has been

misunderstood. Form and function should
be one, joined in a spiritual union.”

“Every great architect is –necessarily- a

great poet. He must be a great original
interpreter of his time, his day, his age.”

GROPUIS, WALTER “Art and Architecture, the new unity.”

KAHN, LOUIS “Architecture is the reaching out for the

truth”

“A house is a house.”

MAILLART, ROBERT “A bridge is like a house.”

(February 6, 1872 – April 5, 1940)

BURNHAM, DANIEL “Make big plans; aim high in hope and

work, remembering that a noble, logical
diagram once recorded will not die.”

“Make no little plans; they have no magic to

stir men’s blood.”

SAARINEN, ELIEL “Beauty grows from necessity not from

repetition of formulas.”
Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen
“Architectural-form equals social-form.”
(August 20, 1873 – July 1, 1950)

SAARINEN, EERO “Function influence but does not dictate

(August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) form.”

PERRET, AUGUSTE “Truth is indispensible to Architecture &

(February 12, 1874 - February 25, 1954) architectural lie concepts.”

NIEMEYER, OSCAR “Form follows beauty.”

Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares
Filho “Architecture is invention.”
(December 15, 1907 – December 5, 2012)

NERVI, PIER LUIGI “Structural correctness, which is

(June 21, 1891 – January 9, 1979) identical with functional, technical &
economic is a necessary & sufficient
condition of satisfactory aesthetic result.”

LUDWIG, MIES VAN DER ROHE “Less is more.”

Maria Ludwig Michael Mies
(March 27, 1886 – August 19, 1969) “Architecture is the will of an epoch
translated into space.”

“Architecture starts when you carefully put

two bricks together. There it begins.”

MENDELSOHN, ERICH “Architecture seizes upon space,

(March 21, 1887 – September 15, 1953) encompasses space and is space itself.”

“Architecture depends on the sensuous

seizure by means of touch and sight.”

LOOS , ADOLF “Supply and demand regulate architecture

(December 10, 1870 – August 23, 1933) form”

LE CORBUSIER “The house is a Machine to live in.”

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris
(October 6, 1887 – August 27, 1965) “Cube within a cube.”

LATROBE , BENJAMIN H. “A bldg. is the combination of different

(May 1, 1764 – September 3, 1820) geometric figures.”

JOHNSON, PHILIP CORTELYOU “Architecture is the art of how to waste

(July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) space ”

“All architects want to live beyond their

deaths.”

GROPIUS, WALTER “Architecture begins where engineering

(May 18, 1883 – July 5, 1969) ends”

BREUER, MARCEL LAJOS “A Building has straight geometrical lines.

(May 21, 1902 – July 1, 1981) Even when these lines are free, it must
always be evident that they have been
studied & that they did not spring up
simultaneously.”

“Nature & Architecture are two different

things.”

“Architecture is a social art.”

POCIO, MARCUS VITRUVIUS “Architecture must meet 3 requirements:

strength, beauty, and unity.”