David Chipperfield Quotes

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

  David Chipperfield

  Differences, Architecture, Good And Bad

  "David Chipperfield: A master of permanence comes home". Interview with Rowan Moore, www.theguardian.com. February 5, 2011.

  50 Copy quote

• There is a danger when every building has to look spectacular; to look like it is changing the world. I don't care how a building looks if it means something, not to architects, but to the people who use it.

  David Chipperfield

  Badass, Mean, Bad Ass

  22 Copy quote

• 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.

  David Chipperfield

  Thinking, Mirrors, People

  "'In Britain, money and marketing are what matter most'". Interview with Jonathan Glancey, www.theguardian.com. November 21, 2005.

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

  David Chipperfield

  Age, Trying, Architecture

  "David Chipperfield Talks Architecture and Luxury". Interview with Jonathan Glancey, www.architecturaldigest.com. January 31, 2013.

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• 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.

  David Chipperfield

  Levels, Ridiculous, Architecture

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• 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.

  David Chipperfield

  Trying, Different, Looks

  "David Chipperfield Talks Architecture and Luxury". Interview with Jonathan Glancey, www.architecturaldigest.com. January 31, 2013.

  8 Copy quote

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

  David Chipperfield

  Design, Morality, Difficult

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

  David Chipperfield

  Integrity, Interesting, May

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• Seeing architecture differently from the way you see the rest of life is a bit weird. I believe one should be consistent in all that one does, from the books you read to the way you bring up your children. Everything you do is connected.

  David Chipperfield

  Children, Believe, Book

  "Inside the homes of our star architects". Interview with Rachel Cooke, www.theguardian.com. September 22, 2012.

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

  David Chipperfield

  Thinking, Years, Cost

  "David Chipperfield: A master of permanence comes home" by Rowan Moore, www.theguardian.com. February 05, 2011.

  7 Copy quote

• You don't restore 'The Last Supper' by filling in the missing bits - you preserve. You accept the material that has somehow survived.

  David Chipperfield

  Missing, Filling In, Lasts

  11 Copy quote

• I spent more than ten years working on the Neues Museum. It was a wonderful experience, an example of real collaboration between architects, conservationists, curators, client, politicians, the media, and the public. Discussions, even when difficult, were always about ideas. Ideas matter to Germans. They're a reflective people. That's attractive.

  David Chipperfield

  Real, Museums, Media

  "David Chipperfield Talks Architecture and Luxury". Interview with Jonatahan Glancey, www.architecturaldigest.com. January 31, 2013.

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• Most architects work in ­studios largely divorced from academia, as if ideas, criticism and ­historical ­research were irrelevant.

  David Chipperfield

  Ideas, Historical, Criticism

  "David Chipperfield: perfect harmony". Interview with Jonathan Glancey, www.theguardian.com. February 3, 2010.

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• We see buildings in Britain mostly as freestanding objects. They are not meant to have a dialogue with anything around them, or with history, or with ideas of any kind beyond the self-referential. What we call 'regeneration' is largely an excuse for building for maximum profit with a bit of sculptural design thrown in to catch the eye of the media.

  David Chipperfield

  Eye, Self, Media

  "In Britain, money and marketing are what matter most" by Jonathan Glancey, www.theguardian.com. November 21, 2005.

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

  David Chipperfield

  Design, Littles, Designer

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  David Chipperfield

  Interesting, Balls, Architecture

  "David Chipperfield: A master of permanence comes home" by Rowan Moore, www.theguardian.com. February 05, 2011.

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• I do quite like Gehry's Guggenheim. But where in Bilbao it's seen as an outgrowth of years of investment in urban design and engineering, in Britain it's seen as the catalyst for urban regeneration rather than the icing on the cake.

  David Chipperfield

  Engineering, Years, Cake

  "'In Britain, money and marketing are what matter most'". Interview with Jonathan Glancey, www.theguardian.com. November 21, 2005.

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• 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.

  David Chipperfield

  Creative, Important, Workplace

  "Box clever". Interview with Steve Rose, www.theguardian.com. October 8, 2007.

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• If you look at a building by Mies van der Rohe, it might look very simple, but up close, the sheer quality of construction, materials and thought are inspirational.

  David Chipperfield

  Simple, Quality, Looks

  "David Chipperfield: perfect harmony" by Jonathan Glancey, www.theguardian.com. February 3, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

• Britain loves a bargain, but you don't get good, lasting architecture on the cheap.

  David Chipperfield

  Architecture, Britain, Lasting

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  David Chipperfield

  Want, Pay, Architecture

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

  David Chipperfield

  Ideas, Luxury, Acting

  "David Chipperfield Talks Architecture and Luxury". Interview with Jonathan Glancey, www.architecturaldigest.com. January 31, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

• In Britain, we've tended to replace the kind of architectural culture valued in much of Europe with an in-flight magazine lifestyle - all branding, marketing and 'accessibility', a word that usually means dumbing-down.

  David Chipperfield

  Mean, Europe, Marketing

  "David Chipperfield: perfect harmony" by Jonathan Glancey, www.theguardian.com. February 3, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

• I like to be surrounded by books. My wife Evelyn has a PhD in comparative literature so we have a lot of her Spanish and German literature books which are wasted on me, plus a lot of novels and books on art and architecture shared by us both. Evelyn used to edit an art magazine called FMR, so we have a common interest in design.

  David Chipperfield

  Art, Book, Wife

  "My space". Interview with Andy Barker, www.theguardian.com. September 6, 2008.

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