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.

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

If a building becomes architecture, then it is art.

Besides, I think that when one has been through a boarding school, especially then, you have some resistance, because it was both fine comradeship and a fairly hard training.

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

The primary factor is proportions.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Now, the downside to conservation is that so much is done for the public, which almost always mars the environment that one wanted to conserve.

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.

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

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

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.

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

I am going to be working on bathroom fittings for a company in the USA, and then I thought it was appropriate to simplify the fittings and, thus, lowering the cost.

You will soon find that I am a bit obsessive about my work. And that is a little sad, one often feels strangely restricted, not finding time to simmer, although one actually has many interests.