David Chipperfield Quotes

I’m suspicious of the idea of architects acting like business executives, brand managers, or purveyors of luxury goods.

I suppose I’m trying to build an architecture that’s as timeless as possible, although we’re all creatures of our age.

Often architects work too hard trying to make their buildings look different. It’s like we’re actors let loose on a stage, all speaking our parts at the same time in our own private languages without an audience.

The difference between good and bad architecture is the time you spend on it.

A building is no good if someone’s got to explain to you why it’s good. You can’t say you don’t know enough about architecture – that’s ridiculous. It’s got to work on many levels.

I may not be the most interesting architect, but I’m still out there and have maintained some position of integrity.

Britain gets the architecture it deserves. We don’t value architecture, we don’t take it seriously, we don’t want to pay for it and the architect isn’t trusted.

It used to be presumed that if you weren’t at your desk working, you weren’t working. But we said, why can’t we make a workplace where casual meetings are as important as working at your desk? Sometimes that’s where your better creative work happens.

I don’t think architecture is radical. How can something that takes years and costs millions be radical?

It is difficult to separate oneself from one’s design moralities.

I do very little industrial design. I’m asked a lot, but I certainly don’t see myself as an industrial designer.

Architecture has curled up in a ball and it’s about itself. It has found itself either as a freakshow, where you’re not sure if it’s good or bad but at least it’s interesting, or at the behest of forces of commerce.