«Psychological and physical frictions abound in the rifts between human beings and the enigmatic, civilised jungle they inhabit. I am deeply interested in trying to understand the relationships between people, society, and nature; and my work is forged from accumulations of these frictions.»
Yayoi Kusama (1929-2026)
Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama. Translation by Ralph McCarthy, The University of Chicago Press, 2011.«Lo primero que tenemos que hacer es sacar a los humanos del centro de la arquitectura.»
Rania Ghosn
Rania Ghosn is Associate Professor of architecture and urbanism at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology —where she is Director of the SMArchS Urbanism program— and founding principal of DESIGN EARTH.
Congreso Mundial de Arquitectos: "Lo primero que tenemos que hacer es sacar a los humanos del centro de la arquitectura", por Ramón Vendrell, El Periódico, Barcelona, 29 junio 2026.«La naturaleza es mi maestra y, para estudiar sus patrones de crecimiento, he utilizado materiales que son producto de nuestro siglo XX.»
Ruth Asawa (1926-2013)
Ruth Asawa: Retrospectiva. Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa 19.03.2026 - 13.09.2026.
«Toda la Filosofía griega es una mirada en su forma más alta y mejor. Saber mirar es ser filósofo en Grecia, con todo lo que de ahí se deriva. Pues la creencia fundamental de esta Filosofía, escondida hasta Platón, es que aquel que mira ya no muere. El que ha sabido mirar, siquiera un árbol, ya no muere. Es la lección y la esperanza de toda vida contemplativa.»
María Zambrano (1904-1991)
Zambrano, María. Hacia un saber sobre el alma (1950). Alianza Editorial, págs. 79-80.
«We look backward at history and tradition to go forward; we can also look downward to go upward. And withholding judgement may be used as a tool to make later judgement more sensitive. This is a way of learning from everything.»
Denise Scott Brown
Denise Scott Brown, Learning from Las Vegas: the Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form, (with Robert Venturi and Steven Izenour), Cambridge: MIT Press, 1972; revised edition 1977.
«A house is not a machine to live in. It is the shell of man, his extension, his release, his spiritual emanation.»
Eileen Gray (1878-1976)
This statement first appeared in a 1929 special edition of the avant-garde magazine L'Architecture Vivante (Winter 1929), titled "Maison en bord de mer" and written by Eileen Gray in collaboration with her partner at the time, the architect and editor Jean Badovici.«There are 360 degrees, so why stick to one?»
Zaha Hadid (1950-2016)
This quote gained global fame during the late 1990s and early 2000s. It was Hadid’s standard, witty response to critics and journalists who asked why her buildings lacked right angles or why they were so "difficult" to build.«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.
«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.«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.«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.«Il tempo lineare è un'invenzione dell'Occidente. Il tempo non è lineare, è un meraviglioso groviglio dove, in qualsiasi momento, possiamo scegliere punti e inventare soluzioni, senza inizio e senza fine.»
«Il passato non ritorna. Sono importanti la continuità e la conoscenza perfetta della propria storia.»
Lina Bo Bardi (1914-1992)
Citato in Maurizio De Caro, Lina Bo Bardi, “il Brasile è il paese dove voglio vivere”, Listone Giordano ONE, 2021.«Playing is the real way to work. The longer you have to play and to enjoy living and working, the better.»
Patricia Urquiola (Oviedo, España, 1961)
Patricia Urquiola "Eye & Heart Captivator", Cozy Home Design Magazine, Issue 36 - Winter 2020, Published on Dec 15, 2019, p. 67. Contribución de Eneko Fernández Lozano, Taller de Diseño, Universidad de Navarra, 12 abril 2024.«Le design est avant tout social. On a toujours voulu l'en écarter en lui donnant des connotations esthétiques. Le design est aussi critique, par nécessité : il implique une attitude, et, aujourd'hui, ce que l'on doit faire, c'est changer d'attitude, pour entretenir une relation plus sereine entre individus mais aussi avec notre environnement.»
Matali Crasset (Châlons-en-Champagne, France, 1965)
Le design pop et ludique de Matali Crasset, Radio France, Mardi 24 novembre 2020.«I don't feel that design by itself can change or save the world – that is always a utopia, and it's unrealistic – but I find that it is a fundamental part of any team effort, and all efforts have to be team efforts at this point to change the status quo.»
Paola Antonelli
MoMA Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, and Director, Research and Development.
"Our task is not to live forever" says Paola Antonelli, by Cajsa Carlson, dezeen, 6 December 2023.«I’m a remarkable woman – always was, though none of you seemed to think so.»
May Morris (1862-1938)
May Morris, letter to George Bernard Shaw, 1936, as quoted in Mason, Anna et al. (2022), May Morris, Arts & Crafts Designer, Thames & Hudson, published in association with the V&A.«Change is definitely coming, change is inevitable because you can't continue to consume more than the planet can replenish every year. You just physically can't. So the question is not if we are gonna change as a society, but how we are gonna change. 'Cause, we're either gonna change by design or by disaster.»
Annie Leonard, Executive Director of Greenpeace USA.
The Minimalists: Less is Now, Netflix Original film, directed by Matt D’Avella, 2021.«Al menos desde la Revolución Industrial, el mundo del diseño ha estado dominado por los rigores de la fabricación y la producción en masa. Las líneas de montaje han dictado un mundo hecho de piezas, enmarcando la imaginación de diseñadores y arquitectos que han sido entrenados para pensar en sus objetos como conjuntos de piezas discretas con funciones distintas.»
Neri Oxman
Neri Oxman, Design at the intersection of technology and biology. TED2015. March 2015.io sono un disegno
disegno minimo
l’empireo dell’arte mi lascia pascolare
dentro lo standard A4
il minimo sa fingere l’immenso
con la sola distanza fra i segni
punti nel vuoto. Quale vuoto?
La mente è capace di tutto. Illimitata
fa balzi cosmici e si ritrova al punto di partenza
ringrazio la matita, è fulminea
sorpassa soprattutto in curva
non sbanda
ringrazio l’acquarello
anche se la mia carta lo respinge
duello fra disegno e acquarello
(non so chi vince)
dopo ottant’anni
l’orologio mi dice
che tutto avviene in meno di un minuto
Lisa Ponti (1922-2019)
Lisa Ponti, Testo raccolto da Hans Ulrich Obrist, Domus 1020, Rebellion, 2018.