I believe very strongly, and have fought since many years ago – at least over 30 years ago – to get architecture not just within schools, but architecture talked about under history, geography, science, technology, art. – Richard Rogers
I like the idea of trying to influence society by taking a brief, then maybe subtly changing it or looking at it in a new way to see what interesting things can emerge. – Richard Rogers
When I started out, nearly every architect I knew was working in public practice; that’s where the radical thinking was done. But, there’s always a danger of looking back as our fathers did and saying, ‘Things were better then.’ – Richard Rogers
Society has to get a grip and put a tax on carbon. Of course, there is much that flows from that, and it is a complex situation. The small details of something such as climate change are political and social, and they are a lot about fairness and how we rebalance towards a fairer society. – Richard Rogers
Everyone has the right to walk from one end of the city to the other in secure and beautiful spaces. Everybody has the right to go by public transport. Everybody has the right to an unhampered view down their street, not full of railings, signs and rubbish. – Richard Rogers
If you live in a squalid environment, then of course you are going to want to get out of it, you are probably going to want to get into the country, because that’s what it does. – Richard Rogers
One of the things you see in New York is that offices keep their lights on at night. They’re proud of their building. Great. But they must find another way to be proud without draining energy. – Richard Rogers
I cycle, which is a healthy thing for an 80-year-old to do. I rarely go further than five miles, but in those five miles I can get to 80 percent of the places I want to go. – Richard Rogers
I had lots of trouble in school as a child, and I lost confidence. Teachers thought I was stupid. I learned to read very late, when I was 11. Dyslexia wasn’t recognized then, and the assumption was you were incapable of thinking. – Richard Rogers
Dyslexia, though, made me realise that people who say ‘but you can’t do that’ aren’t actually very important. I don’t take ‘no’ too seriously. – Richard Rogers
I remember my mother taking me to see the Picasso show in the 1940s, and I was impressed by the life and vibrancy of it all. It was a bit too avant-garde for most Londoners at the time, but since then, the city has become a centre for modern culture. – Richard Rogers
The one advantage of being dyslexic is that you are never tempted to look back and idealise your childhood. – Richard Rogers
Of course I know very little about architecture, and the older I get the less I know. – Richard Rogers
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the challenges facing our cities or to the housing crisis, but the two issues need to be considered together. From an urban design and planning point of view, the well-connected open city is a powerful paradigm and an engine for integration and inclusivity. – Richard Rogers
Architecture is a living thing. If I want to leave something to the future, it has to be able to change – but retain something of the ethos that we built up over 50 years. – Richard Rogers
Watching TV on your own is not very inspiring. But meeting people is where you get new ideas and get things done. – Richard Rogers
There is a Jewish tradition of family, too, but then not all Italian or Jewish families are close. – Richard Rogers
