I have a preference for rough architecture, real, inexpensive, unfinished. 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 writingtimepatience My buildings don't speak in words but by means of their own spaciousness. Thom Mayne architecturetalkingmean The huge problem in our society is the enormous ignorance of the ideas that underlie modern art. Thom Mayne ignoranceideasart 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 architecturebehaviourcommunication 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 architectureideasthinking 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 worldartinteresting 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 askingwantpeople The multiplicity of ideas is what Im interested in. Thom Mayne multiplicityideas I'm interested in conflict and confrontation. Thom Mayne confrontationconflict Look around at day-to-day life for ideas, and it finds its way into your work. Thom Mayne lookswayideas We only exist in terms of how we think we exist. Meaning every cultural development is fabricated and can be fabricated. Thom Mayne termdevelopmentthinking 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 backwardsexistenceideas 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 visionworldideas I've been such an outsider my whole life. Thom Mayne outsiderswhole-lifewhole Large-scale public projects require the agreement of large numbers of people. Thom Mayne agreementnumberspeople Descriptions of my work depress me. They make me feel pinned down. Thom Mayne descriptiondepressingfeels 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 riskcultureart Our idea of nature is increasingly being determined by scientific developments. And they have become decisive for our image of reality. Thom Mayne developmentrealityideas 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 mediaattitudeart
