Rules? Here are my rules: what can be done with one substance must
never be done with another. No two materials are alike. No two sites
on earth are alike. No two buildings have the same purpose. The
purpose, the site, the material determine the shape. Nothing can be
reasonable or beautiful unless it's made by one central idea, and the
idea sets every detail. A building is alive, like a man. Its integrity
is to follow its own truth, its one single theme, and to serve its own
single purpose. A man doesn't borrow pieces of his body. A building
doesn't borrow hunks of its soul. Its maker gives it the soul and every
wall, window, and stairway to express it.
-- Howard Roark
