Bernard Tschumi Quotes

#1. Any relationship between a building and its users is one of violence, for any use means the intrusion of a human body into a given space, the intrusion of one order into another.

Bernard Tschumi

#2. I was once in a very, very bad car accident. So my drawing arm is full of pins and platinum stuff. Occasionally it hurts. But I found that after the arm was put back together I could draw better than before. I have no idea why.

Bernard Tschumi

#3. When I designed my loft, I literally framed the World Trade Center as a picture postcard I could see from my bed. I no longer have that image, and I mourn it.

Bernard Tschumi

#4. Before 2000, everything was about being contextual, and buildings were supposed to be good citizens.

Bernard Tschumi

#5. Architecture is not so much a knowledge of form, but a form of knowledge.

Bernard Tschumi

#6. The ultimate pleasure of architecture lies in the most forbidden parts of the architectural act, where limits are perverted and prohibitions are transgressed.

Bernard Tschumi

#7. I think architects are often at their best when faced with restraints.

Bernard Tschumi

#8. The general public will almost always stand behind the traditionalists. In the public eye, architecture is about comfort, about shelter, about bricks and mortar.

Bernard Tschumi

#9. Society secretly delights in crime, excesses, and violated prohibitions of all sorts.

Bernard Tschumi

#10. I wear the same black suit. I have five of them. I pair them with a red scarf. I was wearing a red scarf when I won the first architectural competition of my career.

Bernard Tschumi

#11. I never talked about architecture with my father, which I regret.

Bernard Tschumi

#12. My apartment reflects my views as an architect. It is minimal, austere. The architecture doesn't impose itself upon you. The apartment is a stage for other things to take place.

Bernard Tschumi

#13. I feel very comfortable in New York, in a city where there is no such thing as 'nationality.'

Bernard Tschumi

#14. Concepts differentiate architecture from mere building ... A bicycle shed with a concept is architecture; a cathedral without one is just a building.

Bernard Tschumi

#15. To really appreciate architecture, you may even need to commit a murder.

Bernard Tschumi