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.
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.
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.
I have no philosophy, my favourite thing is sitting in the studio.
That is the artistic task: To choose the best from these solutions.
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.
I don’t see that any buildings should be excluded from the term architecture, as long as they are done properly.
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 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.
People buy a chair, and they don’t really care who designed it.
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.
Architecture tends to consume everything else, it has become one’s entire life.
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.
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.
Almost every time I make a building, some people will condemn it straight to Hell.
On the other hand, I don’t understand the enthusiasm for everything in the antique shop that Grandma threw out. There, the sense of quality has declined; otherwise Grandma wouldn’t have thrown it out.
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.
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.