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The public brings our buildings to life, and we try to choreograph a lot of things, but our most successful work functions in unanticipated ways. Like the Blur Building. When little kids got in there, they cried or laughed or ran around. And no matter how much theory we put on top of it, it didn't matter: it worked.
Elizabeth Diller -
My mother and father had been through the Holocaust. The family was wiped out. I grew up never knowing aunts, uncles, or grandparents.
Elizabeth Diller
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In a progressively privatised city, the defence of public space, the production of new public space, and saving what is public really for the public is very important.
Elizabeth Diller -
As a kid, I imagined being an artist.
Elizabeth Diller -
In my thesis, I made an intellectual exercise out of creating a pair of buildings that were a repeat but slightly different - dissonant things make me uncomfortable.
Elizabeth Diller -
Architecture, by definition, is always standing still.
Elizabeth Diller -
In the 1970s, New York was known as a place of great artistic production. Slowly, my city went from a place of production to a place of consumption.
Elizabeth Diller -
I believe in planning logics where you have neighbourhoods, and you don't just do one building at a time.
Elizabeth Diller
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I think idiosyncrasy is great.
Elizabeth Diller -
Whenever I ask Siri for directions or a recommendation, I also ask her a trick question. Her answers are usually wacky. She scolds me for cursing, which I love, but she has no problem with ethics. If I say, 'Remind me to rob a bank at 3 P.M.,' she responds, 'Here's your reminder for today at 3 P.M.: Rob a bank. Shall I create it?'
Elizabeth Diller -
I cannot read on a Kindle. I love the physical experience of holding a book, cracking it open, and the process of making the right half weigh less than the left half. I only read hardcover books because I like the resistance and the presence on a bookshelf.
Elizabeth Diller -
We're always taught that we're building for permanence, but why? I like the idea of a prosthetic architecture! When a section is removed, the building readjusts its weight distribution, like a living body.
Elizabeth Diller