'Think simple' as my old master used to say - meaning reduce the whole of its parts into the simplest terms, getting back to first principles.
To look at the cross-section of any plan of a big city is to look at something like the section of a fibrous tumor.
Man is a phase of nature, and only as he is related to nature does he matter, does he have any account whatever above the dust.
The waves lie on the beach; Your hair on your back of angel. (Les vagues s’allongent sur la plage; - Tes cheveux sur ton dos d’ange. )
The autumn leaf falls faster than the trees grow faster. (La feuille d'automne descend plus vite - Que les arbres ne grandissent plus vite.)
Even artificial flowers have a vase. Life is Beautiful. (Même les fleurs artificielles Ont un vase. La vie est belle.)
The cat that laughs is crazy. Man who does not laugh is below... (Le chat qui rit est un fou. - Homme qui ne rit est dessous...)
Christ has global funeral, every Sunday and since twenty centuries. (Jésus a des funérailles mondiales, - Tous les dimanches, et depuis vingt siècles.)
Rail longer than train cars ; and the hope than our reasons. (Rail plus long que les wagons ; - Et l'espoir que nos raisons.)
The work trains the youth. I have a start of old age ... (Le travail forme la jeunesse. - J'ai un début de vieillesse ...)
Japan's humid and warm summer climate, as well as frequent earthquakes resulted in lightweight timber buildings raised off the ground that are resistant to earth tremors.
From the early days of European migration to America, in the 17th Century, the prototype of buildings was based on English precedent, even if mostly translated into the locally available material in abundance: timber.
Art makes murder into the supreme image of Beauty and in doing so sets free the vengeful God. (referring to Jean Lorrain's LE VICE ERRANT)
I like to be in New York. Le Corbusier described it in the 1930s as a 'wonderful catastrophe.' It is still a wonderful catastrophe, but inspiring.
St. Petersburg is a wonderful city. You have wonderful parks, birds singing in the trees, manatees in the water, pelicans. So it's like this little paradise on Earth.
Everyone is aware that most of the built environment today lacks a natural order, an order which presents itself very strongly in places that were built centuries ago.
We define organic order as the kind of order that is achieved when there is a perfect balance between the needs of the parts, and the needs of the whole.
Speaking as a builder, if you start something, you must have a vision of the thing which arises from your instinct about preserving and enhancing what is there.
When you make something, cleaning it out of structural debris is one of the most vital things you do.
I listened to John Denver and Simon & Garfunkel. Edith Piaf was a huge favourite. Then I discovered musicals - I loved 'Les Miserables' - and, at about 14, I started listening to David Gray.
I will read anything by Laura Hillenbrand, Walter Isaacson, Barbara Kingsolver, John le Carre, John Grisham, Hilary Mantel, Toni Morrison, Anna Quindlen and Alice Walker.
