Descriptions of my work depress me. They make me feel pinned down. Thom Mayne More Quotes by Thom Mayne More Quotes From Thom Mayne Architecture is a discipline that takes time and patience. If one spends enough years writing complex novels one might be able, someday, to construct a respectable haiku. Thom Mayne writing time patience My buildings don't speak in words but by means of their own spaciousness. Thom Mayne architecture talking mean The huge problem in our society is the enormous ignorance of the ideas that underlie modern art. Thom Mayne ignorance ideas art Architecture is a social activity that has to do with some sort of communication or places of interaction, and that to change the environment is to change behaviour. Thom Mayne architecture behaviour communication The aesthetic of architecture has to be rooted in a broader idea about human activities like walking, relaxing and communicating. Architecture thinks about how these activities can be given added value. Thom Mayne architecture ideas thinking Architecture is involved with the world, but at the same time it has a certain autonomy. This autonomy cannot be explained in terms of traditional logic because the most interesting parts of the work are non-verbal. They operate within the terms of the work, like any art. Thom Mayne world art interesting You can't make anything authentic by asking people what they want because they don't know what they want. That's what they're looking at you for. Thom Mayne asking want people The multiplicity of ideas is what Im interested in. Thom Mayne multiplicity ideas I'm interested in conflict and confrontation. Thom Mayne confrontation conflict Look around at day-to-day life for ideas, and it finds its way into your work. Thom Mayne looks way ideas We only exist in terms of how we think we exist. Meaning every cultural development is fabricated and can be fabricated. Thom Mayne term development thinking So we can't go backwards, we can only go where the evolutionary trajectory is taking us and attune our ideas about ourselves and our existence to that course. Thom Mayne backwards existence ideas I'm often called an old-fashioned modernist. But the modernists had the absurd idea that architecture could heal the world. That's impossible. And today nobody expects architects to have these grand visions any more. Thom Mayne vision world ideas I've been such an outsider my whole life. Thom Mayne outsiders whole-life whole Large-scale public projects require the agreement of large numbers of people. Thom Mayne agreement numbers people So I am totally aware that when I defend the autonomy of art I'm going counter to my own development. It's more an instinctive reaction, meant to protect the private aspect of the work, the part I am most interested in and which nowadays is at risk in our culture. Thom Mayne risk culture art Our idea of nature is increasingly being determined by scientific developments. And they have become decisive for our image of reality. Thom Mayne development reality ideas For me the meaning of my work is much more fluid. Thom Mayne fluid So at a time in which the media give the public everything it wants and desires, maybe art should adopt a much more aggressive attitude towards the public. I myself am very much inclined to take this position. Thom Mayne media attitude art You might say that when you step inside, you're entering a honorific space, but that's something totally different than experiencing it. And in architecture the experience comes first. That has the deepest effect on us. Thom Mayne entering different space
