As an architect, you design for the present, with an awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially unknown.
The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.
If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.
I have an all-Japanese design team, and none of them speak English. So it's often funny and surprising how my ideas end up lost in translation.
Everyone wants an iPhone, but it would be impossible to design an iPhone in China because it's not a product; it's an understanding of human nature.
Design must be functional, and functionality must be translated into visual aesthetics without any reliance on gimmicks that have to be explained.
Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se.
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.
Trends in fashion, design and pop culture are taking on more global influence, and of course, one thing that's always in style is color.
A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous.
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
A shoe is not only a design, but it's a part of your body language, the way you walk. The way you're going to move is quite dictated by your shoes.
Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose.
Sustainability can't be like some sort of a moral sacrifice or political dilemma or a philanthropical cause. It has to be a design challenge.
