"Straitjackets help me think"?

December 8, 2009 2:54 AM

Is there a quote by an architect or designer about how the constraints make the project?

I'm looking for a quote by an architect or designer about how the constraints are helpful, rather than harmful, to the creative process. I know it's a common thought, but I'm looking for an actual quote by an actual person. Thanks!

posted by suedehead to Society & Culture (6 answers total)

I can't refine it to a single quote but it sounds a lot like this interview called
Design Q&A with Charles Eames.

I imagine that quite a lot of designers and architects since then have paraphrased this interview. Mr Eames himself might very well have been quoting his own predecessors.
posted by at the crossroads at 3:22 AM on December 8, 2009

I know it's not what you've asked for but this seems related to Parkinson's Law ("Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.")

Perhaps if you can find a designer or architect that references that, you may find the quote you're looking for nearby.
posted by HopStopDon'tShop at 6:51 AM on December 8, 2009

Mies van der Rohe: "Less is more."
posted by cocoagirl at 6:58 AM on December 8, 2009

Do you mean something along the lines of form follows function?
posted by Xalf at 8:32 AM on December 8, 2009

I can't pull a pithy quote from it, but there is a page or two in 37 Signal's book "Getting Real" about embracing constraints. (37 Signals is the team behind Basecamp.)
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 10:34 AM on December 8, 2009

Embracing constraints is also a major theme of the 37signals blog, Signal vs. Noise; you can probably find many appropriate quotations there.
posted by James Scott-Brown at 1:09 PM on December 8, 2009