The Egg Chair

Here are some selected quotes attributed to Arne Jacobsen:

On Architecture

+ "Almost every time I make a building, some people will condemn it straight to Hell."

+ "With a painter or a sculptor, one cannot begin to alter his works, but an architect has to put up with anything, because he makes utility objects – the building is there to be used, and times change."

+ "If architecture had nothing to do with art, it would be astonishingly easy to build houses, but the architect’s task – his most difficult task – is always that of selecting.’

On Design

+ "The primary factor is proportions."

+ "That is the artistic task: To choose the best from these solutions."

+ "It may sound affected – but it is the act of creation itself, and it is equally exhilarating whether one is working on a teaspoon or a national bank."

+ "I do not feel certain until I have confronted my initial solution with other solutions – although in fact the first solution often proves to be the right one."

On Life

+ "But I think that parents who criticise their children too much are in fact better than parents who praise their children too much."

+ "Carrying out the thing, getting it to the point when one might say: There, now it is good – that point is hard to reach. Often, one sets very high goals for oneself. Perhaps too high."

On Furniture design

+ "People buy a chair, and they don’t really care who designed it."

-Arne Jacobsen