Jack Wu > Jack's Quotes

“For centuries architects have been taught to sketch, model and build in three static dimensions - x, y and z. But the natural world offers contexts that are much more dimensionally complex and dynamic.”
― Neri Oxman

“When we're able to communicate in nature's language; when we're able to transcend the view that nature is a boundless entity; even transcending the building as the kernel of the architectural project; when we invite scientific inquiry and technological innovation, fusing atoms with bits and bits with genes - only then will the art of building enable new forms of interaction between humans and their environment.”
― Neri Oxman

“When we're able to communicate in nature's language; when we're able to transcend the view that nature is a boundless entity; even transcending the building as the kernel of the architectural project; when we invite scientific inquiry and technological innovation, fusing atoms with bits and bits with genes - only then will the art of building enable new forms of interaction between humans and their environment. Only then will we be able to design, construct and evolve as equals.”
― Neri Oxman

“We must consider the building not as an object but as a collaborative system tightly linked to it's natural environment; an ecological niche.”
― Neri Oxman

“Optically transparent, structurally sound and chemically inert, glass is a fabulous building material and has been for over four thousand years. Still, the production and use of hundreds of billions of glass facad components every year in the US alone begs the question; What if we can utilize this immense surface area for harvesting solar energy in efficient and effective ways.”
― Neri Oxman

“Optically transparent, structurally sound and chemically inert, glass is a fabulous building material and has been for over four thousand years. Still, the production and use of hundreds of billions of glass facad components every year in the US alone begs the question; What if we can utilize this immense surface area for harvesting solar energy in efficient and effective ways? The 3D Printing of optically transparent glass points toward such a possible future.”
― Neri Oxman

“Unlike blowing or forming glass, resulting in smooth and continuous surfaces; the printing of glass enables high levels of control over shape and optical properties.”
― Neri Oxman

“From a limited pallet of molecular components including cellulose, chitosan, and pectin; the very same materials found in trees, crustaceans and apple skins - natural systems embody an extensive array of functional materials that outperform human engineered ones through their resilience, sustainability and adaptability.”
― Neri Oxman

“If we can scale the structure and function relationships found in trees and crustaceans - we will be able to architect buildings, including full scale towers, as living structures able to adapt and respond to their environment.”
― Neri Oxman

“A tree becomes a tower, a tower regrows a tree.”
― Neri Oxman

“Through life and programmed decomposition - shelter becomes organism, and organism becomes shelter as it holds the potential to promote the health of natural resource cycles by such means as promoting soil micro-organisms and providing nutrients for growing buildings.”
― Neri Oxman

“The discovery of innocence is its loss”
― Neri Oxman

“Through life and programmed decomposition - shelter becomes organism, and organism becomes shelter.”
― Neri Oxman

“What are the ways by which we can reorient architecture to consider materials not as consumables, but as outputs of valuable and increasingly scarce ecological niches.”
― Neri Oxman, Neri Oxman: Material Ecology

“Architects are now on the look for materials and substances that can enhance biodiversity and rewild living systems.”
― Neri Oxman

“A biomarker of evolution, melanin is the color of life.”
― Neri Oxman

“Melanin represents unity in the diversity of life on earth.”
― Neri Oxman

“It's about enabling the generation of materials and structures designed to interact, adapt and respond to the natural environment.”
― Neri Oxman

“For the first time in architectural history, we're approaching the resolution and complexity of the natural world by creating new technologies that will ultimately enable us to design a beam as if it were a branch or an HVAC and waste removal system as if it were a photosynthetic GI tract engineered to convert carbon into biofuel.”
― Neri Oxman

“Imagine that nature is the single most important client in the architectural practice.”
― Neri Oxman

“Let's put heterogeneity over homogeneity. We need to design materials that can restore or rewild biodiversity on the planet. When ecosystems are more diverse, they are better able to perform essential ecosystem services like carbon sequestration.”
― Neri Oxman, Neri Oxman: Material Ecology

“We must consider the building not as an object but as a collaborative system tightly linked to it's natural environment.”
― Neri Oxman

“To speak in nature's language, we must prioritize bio-based structural materials; biopolymers. Biopolymers are natural polymers produced by the cells of living organisms.”
― Neri Oxman

“To speak in nature's language, we must prioritize bio-based structural materials; biopolymers. Biopolymers are natural polymers produced by the cells of living organisms. We're already utilizing them in products, pharma, and even in fashion. But to deploy them on the architectural scale, we need to invest in design and construction technologies that emulate their heirarchical properties by engineering real time chemical formation.”
― Neri Oxman

“To speak in nature's language, we must prioritize bio-based structural materials; biopolymers.”
― Neri Oxman

“A skyscraper is not a tree - not yet.”
― Neri Oxman

“Since our divorce from nature with the industrial revolution, the major challenge for architecture remains a challenge of language as we replace units of growth with units of construction.”
― Neri Oxman

“I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life.”
― Warren Buffett

“We need a moderately-priced stock market… The market, like the Lord, helps those who help themselves. But, unlike the Lord, the market does not forgive those who know not what they do. For the investor, a too-high purchase price for the stock of an excellent company can undo the effects of a subsequent decade of favorable business developments.”
― Warren Buffet

“Get something to improve yourself at least 1% each day”
― Warren Buffet