Balkrishna Doshi, Indian architect, founder of Vastu Shilpa Consultants, Pritzker Prize winner, worked under Le Corbusier:
"A truly sustainable city is a city where the least human energy and time is spent in getting things done. Then people have time for reflection and can once again act like human beings, not the robots they have been forced to become."
Cite: Singh-Bartlett, W. Pritzker Prize winner Balkrishna Doshi on modernism, India and dropping your ego. Retrieved from: https:// www.wallpaper.com/architecture/pritzker-prize-winner-balkrishna-doshi. 07 March 2018. Wallpaper. (accessed 08.11.2022).
What is the concept of "non-extractive architecture"? Is it possible to respect nature in architecture?
Joseph Grima, co-founder of the Italian design studio Space Caviar and architect, creative director of Design Academy Eindhoven and art critic:
"The architecture of the future must prioritise conserving the earth’s resources if humans are to overcome the evolutionary crisis that they currently face. Getting better at getting better will not on its own be sufficient. In the face of our accelerating technological supremacy, we can no longer afford to simply ask how much it is possible to extract from our habitat; we are now compelled to ask how much it is reasonable to extract. <…> Non-extractive architecture must fully consider the costs not just for the individual and for society, but also future societies who will live with the consequences of the choices of today’s technologically empowered humans."
Cite: Grima, J. (2021). Joseph Grima calls for "new form of architectural practice that considers the full chain of building's consequences." Retrieved from: https://www.dezeen.com/2021/11/17/joseph-grima-manifesto-dezeen-15/. 17 November 2021. Dezeen. (accessed 08.11.2022).
Will we get a healthy city by addressing environmental problems?
Ma Yansong, founder of China's most famous architectural firm, MAD Architects, a professor at Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture:
"Modern cities right now are too much about efficiency and capital power. It is just about environment, pollution, traffic. Every city has to deal with them, but it doesn’t mean that if you solve them you have a "good city". You and I have a healthy body, but it doesn’t mean that we are mentally healthy… We talk about environment, energy saving and sustainability but I think it’s too much about technology. You have better air conditioning, better glass, better solar panels, but it doesn’t mean those who are working in this building want to stay there forever! They still want to escape every weekend and still go to the countryside because they still feel they aren’t connected with nature. That is the basics, the fundamental reason why we are starting to talk about nature now. If we say we want to be close to nature, why can’t we let the temperature be one degree less or more in your room, in the office?"