The purpose of architecture is to transmute the emptiness into space, that is into something which our minds can grasp as an organized unity.

As for philosophy, it makes an architect high-minded and not self-assuming, but rather renders him courteous, just, and honest without avariciousness. This is very important, for no work can be rightly done without honesty and incorruptibility.

Architects by design investigate the play of volumes in light, explore the mysteries of movement in space, examine the measure that is scale and proportion, and above all, they search for that special quality that is the spirit of the place as no building exists alone. The practice of architecture is a collective enterprise, with many individuals of various disciplines and talents working closely together. And from the commissioning to the completion of a project, there are also the many individuals for whom architects work, whose contribution to quality is frequently as crucial as that of the architect. So I accept this prize for all who have worked with me in this unique undertaking. Let us all be attentive to new ideas, to advancing means, to dawning needs, to impetuses of change so that we may achieve, beyond architectural originality, a harmony of spirit in the service of man.

[Makes a good architect] an open mind, energy, an appetite for hard work, a willingness to explore new solutions and push boundaries. A sense of humor is also helpful.

Per definition, architecture is a service for the whole human being. As such, architecture includes a material and an immaterial aspect; it has to meet rational and irrational requirements. (Architektur versteht sich als Dienstleistung für den ganzen Menschen. Als solche hat sie eine materielle und eine immaterielle Komponente; es sind rationale und irrationale Bedürfnisse zu befriedigen.)

There’s something about the training of an architect that’s particularly suited to our time: it’s about bringing disparate pieces of information together in a framework. Architecture is about more than building buildings.

Architects have the power to change the culture of how we build and how we think about resources.

Architecture is not about building the impossible, which we can do if we have enough money and enough tools and enough computers, it is about building what is appropriate and about attaining beauty through such an approach. I describe this premise as "inherent buildability and I believe it is central to what I do.

Often, the program ends up amazing. You'll say, "This is beautifully architected." Well, where did that architecture come from? In this case, architecture means the systematic way we deal with diverse requirements. Architecture allows us, when we go to do work we need to do on the program, to find where things go. It is a system that was worked into the program by all the little decisions we made — little decisions that were right, and little decisions that were wrong and corrected. In a sense we get the architecture without really trying. All the decisions in the context of the other decisions simply gel into an architecture.

The world is changing dramatically and architecture, and especially cities, need to move with these changes. What can we do to help as architects? Architecture as a way of thinking — as the title of our first exhibition in 1989 suggested — is more relevant than ever.

I find that every project is a new discovery process. I believe an architect should really understand the client's need and his ambitions for that building, his idealism of what that building should be like, the people who work there.

Architecture is the concrete presentment in space of the soul of a people.

Form - as a pattern of perception - can motivate the use of architecture. Architecture provides a complete service for its users, if function (practical purpose) coincides with use motivated by form. (Mit der Gestalt als Wahrnehmungsstruktur lässt sich der Gebrauch einer Architektur motivieren. Wenn die Funktion (der praktische Zweck) mit der (gestaltbezogenen) Motivation zum Gebrauch übereinstimmt, ist die Dienstleistung der Architektur für den Menschen komplett.)

Architecture is life, or at least life itself taking form. . . the truest record of life as it was lived in the world yesterday, as it is lived today or will ever be lived.