Arne Jacobsen Quotes

Clearly, if a building is not functionally and technically in order, then it isn't architecture either, it's just a building.

The primary factor is proportions.

I have no philosophy, my favourite thing is sitting in the studio.

If a building becomes architecture, then it is art.

People buy a chair, and they don't really care who designed it.

There is always a point when one senses ones lack of skill, the doubt

It may sound affected - but it is the act of creation itself, and it is equally exhilarating whether one is working on a teaspoon or a national bank.

And when an architect has designed a house with large windows, which is a necessity today in order to pull the daylight into these very deep houses, then curtains come to play a big role in architecture.

That is the artistic task: To choose the best from these solutions.

I do not feel certain until I have confronted my initial solution with other solutions - although in fact the first solution often proves to be the right one.

Furniture manufacturing in plastics requires very costly machinery, which the Danish market is not big enough to justify. Or so they say. But show me a plastics manufacturer who dares to take on the experiment

None of us has invented the house; that was done many thousands of years ago.

If architecture had nothing to do with art, it would be astonishingly easy to build houses, but the architect's task - his most difficult task - is always that of selecting.

A pastry usually tastes better if it looks nice. A cream pastry, now that looks nice - in fact, there is nothing I mind as long as it looks nice.

In addressing a task, one almost always has several possible options, sometimes only a few, and they may all be practical and functional. But they lack the aesthetic aspect that raises it to architecture.

Architecture tends to consume everything else, it has become one's entire life.

Proportions are what makes the old Greek temples classic in their beauty. They are like huge blocks, from which the air has been literally hewn out between the columns.

When I travel, I draw and paint sketches which is great fun. And as long as you are fully aware that it has nothing to do with actual art, I think that's all right.

But I think that parents who criticise their children too much are in fact better than parents who praise their children too much.

That business of relaxation, which is so terribly modern today, is all good and well, but my work interests me so much, and is so varied, that many times it seems relaxing when I go from one aspect to another.

I don't see that any buildings should be excluded from the term architecture, as long as they are done properly.

Almost every time I make a building, some people will condemn it straight to Hell.

With a painter or a sculptor, one cannot begin to alter his works, but an architect has to put up with anything, because he makes utility objects - the building is there to be used, and times change.

In a way, the sense of quality has improved, the status symbol of the small things is gone, and it is acceptable to use stainless steel, even if the neighbour uses silver.

Carrying out the thing, getting it to the point when one might say: There, now it is good - that point is hard to reach. Often, one sets very high goals for oneself. Perhaps too high.