488

«Somehow, and this is a theory of mine, a car design, like any work of art, embodies the feelings and emotions of the designers who create it. When the chemistry of talent, experience, intelligence, and enthusiasm all come together at the right time, the car begins to take on a life of its own and emits certain vibes. Some designs are like fads — their vibes are transient, but others continue to have appeal over a long period of time and become classics.»

William Lee “Bill” Porter Jr. (1937–2025)

Pontiac Firebird History - Designing A Legend: Pontiac Designer Bill Porter's Influence On The Development Of The Second-Gen Firebird, by Rocky Rotella, HOT ROD, Jul 01, 2007.
Photo: 1970 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.

487

«The dialogue between client and architect is about as intimate as any conversation you can have, because when you're talking about building a house, you're talking about dreams.»

Robert A. M. Stern (1939–2025)

As quoted in The art of conversation by Perpetual Private Insigts, 30 May 2018.
Photo: Robert A. M. Stern Architects, The Shore Club, Under construction, 2028.

486

«The irreducible elements of architecture can be bricks and pixels.»

Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, 2000.

Liz Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, by Belinda Luscombe, TIME, February 14, 2000.
Photo: Blur Building, Yverdon-Les-Bains, Switzerland, Swiss Expo 2002.

485

«I think one of the reasons I teach and stay in touch with the university is to tap into youthful optimism. People say, “Why should you teach? Why should you mess with these guys? Why not go out and practice and do work day in and day out on your own?” You get older. You become cynical. You become jaded. You can’t help it. It seems to be the way Jewish liberals end up. But when you go into a class at Yale, say, and you meet a bunch of kids in their twenties, they’re vibrant, intelligent, talented, and they’re talking about the future. And you can say, Well, I was there, and look at me. If I could do it, they can do it. And maybe they’re going to do it better. Multiply that in your mind times the hundreds and thousands and millions of kids like that. [laughs] You’ve got to feel the world’s going to go on. It is a guard against cynicism. It stops you short. God, when I was their age we were threatened by the bomb, Hitler, polio. We were threatened by terrible political upheavals and anti-Semitism. It’s short-sighted to think they’re not going to deal with similar problems, because they are. So teaching taps you into this optimism. I also did something a lot of people my age are doing these days: I had another life—a new wife and young kids. I can’t see them without feeling that there’s a future out there. You have to be optimistic. I still have all these doubts and conflicts, but the bottom line is, I believe in the future.»

Frank Gehry (1929-2025)

"New Again: Frank Gehry". Interview with Angela Ledgerwood and Ross Miller, Interview Magazine, September 19, 2012.

484

«El diseñador vive entre dos mundos: el subjetivo y el objetivo. El primero se basa en símbolos, originalidad y la relativamente inmutable e intrínseca naturaleza de los objetos. Está conectado a la magia de la creatividad, la influencia de la historia y la memoria, y los grandes maestros y visionarios del campo del diseño. El segundo es el mundo real, relacionado con mercados, inversiones, costes, fabricantes y programas de producción. Un mundo representa el deseo y el otro la realidad. Cuanto más cercanos sean nuestros deseos a la realidad, mejor será el diseño. La habilidad de un objeto para sugerir emociones nace de un proceso de desarrollo, donde la realidad no puede traicionar a los deseos y la relación entre los dos mundos permanece intacta.»

Jorge Pensi (1946-2025)

Charlotte y Peter Fiell (Ed.), "El diseño del siglo XXI", Taschen GmbH, Köln, 2002.

483

«There is no intelligence without emotion. The emotion may be anterior or concurrent. There may be emotion without much intelligence, but that does not concern us.»

Ezra Pound (1885-1972)

Ezra Pound reviews T. S. Eliot (Poetry, 1917). A review by Ezra Pound of Prufrock and Other Observations by T.S. Eliot. The review was first published in 1917 in Poetry magazine and later in Pound's book Literary Essays. Project Gutenberg.

482

«Good design should be something that is loved for a long time. Designers – and humanity in general – must avoid creating things that are deemed undesirable in the context of life itself.»

Naoto Fukasawa

Design should "blend into the background of everyday life" says Naoto Fukasawa, by Rupert Bickersteth, Dezeen, 10 February 2025.

481

«We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.»

Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Sir Winston Churchill in his speech to the meeting in the House of Lords, October 28, 1943, requesting that the House of Commons bombed out in May 1941 be rebuilt exactly as before.

480

En una entrevista con el Art Center College of Design de Pasadena, California, al preguntarle sobre la responsabilidad que existe en cada diseñador, Davidson descarta el cliché detrás de la idea de “Responsabilidad Social” en el diseño.

«Prefiero más la actitud zen de ser tú mismo, involucrarte y conectarte con otros con respeto y un espíritu compasivo. Creo que un diseñador, sobre todo, debe ser creativo y honesto consigo mismo. En otras palabras, el diseñador debe diseñar.»

Rafael Davidson (1937-2025)

Los Que Hacen: México Exporta, André Mooij, Designaholic, México, 07 julio 2015.

479

«Mucho se habla del Arte universal; mas todo Arte tiene su patria, todo Arte es fruto de alguna tierra.»

Alfonso Rodríguez Castelao (1886-1950)

Alfonso Rodríguez Castelao, Arte e galeguismo, 1919. Cita compartida por Iván Leal Durán en LinkedIn.
¡Mil gracias, Iván!

478

«Does it make any sense to design a chair which is not good to sit on?»

Yrjö Kukkapuro (1933-2025)

Postmodernist Finnish designer Yrjö Kukkapuro dies aged 91, Dezeen, by Jane Englefield, 10 February 2025.

477

«To be a designer is not just a job. To be a designer is who you are, what you do, and how you feel. It’s a mindset and a lifestyle. It’s the way you experience the entire universe. Designers are people in love with people: their mission in life is to design human value, and while doing so, they create business value too.»

Mauro Porcini

Mauro Porcini, Instagram, 19 nov 2024.

476

«So we have to be careful what we humans design, because we are literally designing the future, and that future isn’t in our idea of the thing, how we think it will be used and so on — that’s just our access mode. The future emerges directly from the objects we design.»

Timothy Morton

Morton, Timothy, All Art is Ecological, Penguin Books, 2021, p.62-63.

475

«Los jardines no son exactamente como otros espacios humanos. Son híbridos: poseídos, diseñados y gestionados por una especie, pero ocupados por miles de especies más. Algunos fueron introducidos por el jardinero imaginario, otros llegaron como intrusos, muchos se establecieron como propietarios libres antes de que se construyera la casa, todos con sus propias vidas que llevar.

Nos gusta pensar que estamos en comunión armoniosa con estos organismos —“reconectando con la naturaleza”—, pero en realidad, los estamos controlando.»

Richard Mabey

Richard Mabey, Un jardín enredado a consciencia, Cambio16, 12 diciembre 2024.
Hypericum calycinum, fotografía de Carlos Alonso Pascual, 2024.

474

«Donde la guerra ha destrozado plantas y matado a animales hay espacios vacíos que podrían volver a llenarse con nuevas figuras, si hubiera suficiente fe en la imaginación y en la capacidad humanas para desarrollar formas superiores.»

Hilma af Klint, El Cisne, 1915.

Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa, Exposición Hilma af Klint, 18.10.2024 - 02.02.2025.

473

«A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.»

Aldo Leopold (1887-1948)

Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 1949, p. 262, as quoted in Wikipedia.
Image: Aldo Leopold on a bow hunting trip to the Rio Gavilán, Northern Mexico, 1938 (Public Domain).

472

«I caratteri fondamentali dell'architettura futurista saranno la caducità e la transitorietà. Le case dureranno meno di noi. Ogni generazione dovrà fabbricarsi la sua città. Questo costante rinnovamento dell'ambiente architettonico contribuirà alla vittoria del Futurismo.»

«Las características fundamentales de la arquitectura futurista serán la caducidad y la transitoriedad. Las casas durarán menos que nosotros. Cada generación tendrá que fabricarse su propia ciudad. Esta constante renovación del ambiente arquitectónico contribuirá a la victoria del Futurismo.»

Antonio Sant'Elia (1888-1916)

Antonio Sant'Elia, L'Architettura Futurista. Manifesto, "Lacerba", 1 agosto 1914.

471

«Biodesign — design with living materials — is obviously looking to the future, as living matter is becoming a stakeholder and not just a resource. It’s a vision that is no longer anthropocentric.

On March 26, 2021, the Charter on the Rights of Living Things was proclaimed. In my view, this is an approach that questions the rights of nature and animals. It is totally disruptive. It’s biocentrism.

We can imagine that tomorrow there will be no design without bio-inspiration, with bio-inspiration becoming an approach that enables humans to better engage in dialogue and work with living things. In this case, nature would not be a catalogue of “virtuous technological practices” but a culture of doing.»

Katie Cotellon
Head of Design & UX, Saint Gobain Research, France.

IF Design Trend Report 2024, p. 203.

470

«Design creates culture. Culture shapes values. Values determine the future. Design is therefore responsible for the world our children will live in.»

Robert L. Peters (1954-2023)

Robert L. Peters himself explained this quote: «I first used the line “Design creates culture. Culture shapes values. Values determine the future…” in a conference lecture in the mid-or-late 1990s.»

469

«Was kümmert mich der Vöglein Sang
Hoch in der blauen Luft?
Was kümmert mich der Glocke Klang
Die dort zur Andacht ruft?

Will ja nur Form in Farben,
Ob bunt sie oder grau,
Will nur der Sonne Glitzern
Dort auf der Gräser Tau,
Will nur das nächt’ge Dunkel
Dort in dem düstern Tann
Auf meine Leinwand bannen,
So gut ich's eben kann.

Wär’ nur die Hand geschickter,
Dann könnt’ es mir gelingen
Durch’s Konterfei zu sagen,
Wie Vöglein singen, Glocken klingen.»

----

«¿Qué me importa el canto de los pájaros
en lo alto del aire azul?
¿Qué me importa el sonido de la campana
que allí llama a la devoción?

Sólo quiero la forma en colores,
Ya sea colorida o gris,
Sólo quiero que el sol brille
Allí sobre el rocío de las hierbas,
Sólo quiero la oscuridad nocturna
Allí en el sombrío abeto
Capturarla en mi lienzo
lo mejor que pueda.

Si tan sólo mi mano fuera más hábil,
Entonces podría tener éxito
Decir a través de la semejanza,
cómo cantan los pájaros, cómo suenan las campanas.»

Koloman Moser (1868-1918)

En 1896, Koloman Moser, que entonces tenía 28 años, escribió estos versos en su diario. Acababa de terminar sus estudios en la Academia de Bellas Artes y en la Escuela de Artes y Oficios de Viena, y las amplias oportunidades para desarrollar su talento no habían hecho más que empezar.
Citado en Belvedere Werkverzeichnisse, Koloman Moser. Ein Genie auf der Suche nach Vollkommenheit (Maria Rennhofer)

468

«Tras pensarlo mucho llegué a la conclusión de que diseñar es ordenar y de que el diseño consiste en cumplir una función manteniendo la emoción, la emoción estética. Todo lo que soluciona con belleza es un buen diseño. Lo que consigue estética sin función es otra cosa. En el diseño tienen que darse a la vez ambos: solución y belleza. No vale entorpecer con belleza. La belleza nace de la gracia, de evitar, precisamente, la torpeza.
Cuando era joven me daba vergüenza reconocer, y ya no digamos afirmar, que me importaba la belleza, que consideraba esencial la parte estética de las cosas. Ahora me enorgullezco de haberla cuidado. También de decirlo. Y hasta de repetirlo: la estética es lo más importante. La función se da por hecha. Pero la emoción estética enriquece la compañía.»

Miguel Milá (1931-2024)

Miguel Milá, Lo esencial: El diseño y otras cosas de la vida, Editorial Lumen, 2019.

467

«Es gibt zwei Arten von Künstlern: die einen, die eine Sache vernunftmäßig aufbauen und systematisch entwickeln, und die anderen, denen etwas einfällt – ich bin mehr für die Einfallenden.»

«There are two kinds of artists: those who rationally construct and systematically develop something and the others who are moved by inspiration – I tend to prefer the inspired.»

Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956)

Josef Hoffmann, RAVAG-Interview, 1923, As quoted in MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Wien, MAK.digiSTORY.

466

«We had it that architecture was a means, not an end. With on our shoulders the full weight of insecurity and skepticism (a vague unease, feelings of alienation, etc.) and with a dose of cynicism, we decided to become Super.»

Adolfo Natalini (1941-2020)

Adolfo Natalini, How great was architecture in 1966, Superstudio: The middleburg Lectures, 2005.

465

«The nature of trees and grass is one thing, but there are many degrees of nature. Concrete can be nature. Interstellar spaces are also nature. There is human nature. In the city, you have to have a new nature. Maybe you have to create that nature.»

Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988)

Isamu Noguchi (1970) as quoted in Isamu Noguchi: A New Nature, White Cube Bermondsey, London, February 4, 2022 – April 3, 2022.

464

«Tutto ciò che ci circonda, sia naturale che artificiale, è forma. La forma corrisponde al significato di un oggetto, alla ragione per cui un oggetto viene costruito, e rappresenta, se è ben fatta, la sua più alta qualità. Il problema della forma è ricercarne l'essenza.»

Enzo Mari (1932-2020)

Enzo Mari for ARTEK. Homage to Autoprogettazione. The essence of form. YouTube, 6 oct 2010.

463

«Together we want to design a better world for people living with dementia.

We believe that compassion helps us to see the person and not the disease and that moments of positive connection can inspire loving relationships.

We are committed to designing products, places and services that stimulate the senses, bring pleasure and reconnect people living with dementia with carers and loved ones.

We believe that there is no simple solution, no one size fits all, no single answer to the problem of living with the disease but that we can design for positive experiences, moment-by-moment and day-by-day.

Our aim is to design with compassion, share with joy, communicate with sincerity and make a contribution to building a dementia friendly world.»

Cathy Treadaway

Cathy Treadaway, Compassionate Design Manifesto, 2016.

462

«Lo que no puede ser es quedarte con una idea y obsesionarte con ella como diseñador. Eso es un error, hay que saber escuchar, interpretar y ser suficientemente flexible para que una idea se convierta en una de mil.»

Pepe Cortés León (1946-2024)

Pepe Cortés: «Es un error quedarte con una idea como diseñador y obsesionarte con ella», El Correo, 12 marzo 2014.

461

«Cose minimali è molto difficile che ne faccia perché io non ricerco il minimalismo, semmai la semplicità che è una cosa molto differente.»

Gae Aulenti (1927-2012)

Zanotta: 2018/2019, Catalogo Generale, p. 303.

460

«Don’t make something you are not going to be proud of in your lifetime, let alone 100 years from now. Don’t build for the moment… make a classic.»

Michael Graves (1934-2015)

Alessi, Collections, Michael Graves.

459

«Hay diseño en todo, en una nube, en un muro, en el mar, en una ola...
Natural o hecho por el hombre, hay diseño en todo.»

Clara Porset (1895-1981)

Citado en REPENTINA, Boletín Electrónico de la Facultad de Arquitectura, UNAM, Quinta Época, Septiembre 2019, Editorial, p. 3.