I taught at Princeton for 39 years, and the school of architecture on the campus is the worst building on the campus. Michael Graves More Quotes by Michael Graves More Quotes From Michael Graves The dialogue of architecture has been centered too long around the idea of truth. Michael Graves architecture long ideas My favorite is the garlic press. I think it's beautiful as an object. But the awkward part of it all is that I don't use it much because I'm allergic to garlic. Michael Graves awkward beautiful thinking I know that's not something that people like to do - identify a favorite. But I do. Michael Graves knows people Alberto Alessi had asked a dozen architects to design a sterling silver tea service - with a teapot, a coffee pot, sugar, creamer, a spoon, and a tray. Our brief was that it didn't matter if it didn't work and cost wasn't the issue. It was a promotional project, not a commercial enterprise, and was going to be showcased in museums. And the coffee and tea piazza, as mine was called, received a great response. It was wonderful to walk into the Whitney museum and see all these objects on the first floor. Michael Graves issues coffee museums Views are overrated; it's light that counts. I have an apartment in Miami's South Beach, and I get tired of looking at the ocean. Even that view gets old after a while. Sunlight streaming into a room - it never gets old. Michael Graves looking tired ocean light Instead of using the machine as a metaphor for architecture, as Le Corbusier did, I use the human body. I want the public to know that it's them I'm designing for. Michael Graves know architecture body want I used a kind of gray-green early on in my practice for painting steel, to make it look more like it had a kind of patina to it, like copper and bronze and so on. The color I used was a Benjamin Moore color called 2012. My then-young daughter started calling me 2012 - it was my nickname. Michael Graves look me painting daughter I see architecture not as Gropius did, as a moral venture, as truth, but as invention, in the same way that poetry or music or painting is invention. Michael Graves architecture music poetry truth Good design should be available to everyone - and I do mean everyone. What I spent on the wheelchair I'm in could buy a small Mercedes. It's not only unfair to me; it's unfair to someone who's indigent but has the same needs. My goal is to make all objects affordable. Michael Graves someone good me design I believe well-designed places and objects can actually improve healing, while poor design can inhibit it. Michael Graves design poor healing believe I grew up in a time when Eames and Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright and other architects were putting their furniture and objects on the market. You could buy some of those objects on the open market. Eames was a huge influence on all of us in school. Michael Graves you influence time school Good design to me is both appearance and functionality together. It's the experience that makes it good design. Michael Graves good me experience together As a child, I was obsessed with drawing things, like Mickey and Donald. And houses. My mother was worried I'd become an artist. Michael Graves child drawing artist mother It was always my goal to 'up the ante' on good design, and I've devoted much of my career to this. Michael Graves career good always design For my first apartment, when I was first married, I went to the lumberyard and bought stuff and made couches. My then-wife made cushions. I was really very interested in furniture. I was in school for architecture, but I had to live, and making furniture was different from designing buildings, which I couldn't do for myself. Michael Graves live myself architecture school When I started my own practice, I was criticized, not because I was doing product design but because, like Le Corbusier, I was insisting on paintings in all of my buildings. I would paint wall murals in the houses that I designed, just as he did in the '20s and '30s. Michael Graves buildings my-own design practice We always correct people who say, 'You're trying to make this look better.' Well yes, we want it to look better, but that's easy. The look and the function are one and the same. They are not separate. It looks good because it functions beautifully. That message is very hard. Michael Graves good look you people I'm working on a school of architecture in China. It's rare that an architect gets to design a school of architecture, and here I get to do it. I'm so pleased that they asked me. Michael Graves me design architecture school You can never draw enough or read enough - reading about architecture, in other words. Michael Graves words you architecture reading On the first day I got my wheelchair, I was also given all my clothes for the next day, a little pile on the chair. I was so proud of myself for getting it all on - the socks and everything. Dressing is a struggle, and it can take up to an hour and a half. Michael Graves day myself clothes struggle
