57 Quotes by Renzo Piano

Architecture is art. I don't think you should say that too much, but it is art. I mean, architecture is many, many things. Architecture is science, is technology, is geography, is typography, is anthropology, is sociology, is art, is history. You know all this comes together. Architecture is a kind of bouillabaisse, an incredible bouillabaisse. And, by the way, architecture is also a very polluted art in the sense that it's polluted by life, and by the complexity of things.

One of the great beauties of architecture is that each time, it is like life starting all over again.

A museum is a place where one should lose one’s head.

You have to accept as an architect to be exposed to criticism. Architecture should not rely on full harmony.

Cities are beautiful because they are created slowly; they are made by time. A city is born from a tangle of monuments and infrastructures, culture and market, national history and everyday stories. It takes 500 years to create a city, 50 to create a neighborhood.

If you have total freedom, then you are in trouble. It’s much better when you have some obligation, some discipline, some rules. When you have no rules, then you start to build your own rules.

Architecture is an imposed art in some ways, imposed upon the public, so people must be sure about what you’re doing. You have to be sure about what you’re doing.

In a way I spend my entire life stealing from everything – from the past, from cities I love, from where I grew up – grabbing things, taking not only from architecture but from Italy, art, writing, poetry, music.

A builder is like a little god – somebody who does things, doesnt just draw things.