Thom Mayne quotes - page 2

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)

I think my clients would tell you I'm a problem solver. I'm not there to agree with people. I'm there to articulate a point of view. Am I insistent and tenacious? Absolutely. I could not get this work done if I was not.

Thom Mayne

Architecture is a result of a process of asking questions and testing them and re-interrogating and changing in a repetitive way.

Thom Mayne

Find a place that you are comfortable with. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Make a lot of mistakes.

Thom Mayne

I have a preference for rough architecture, real, inexpensive, unfinished.

Thom Mayne

Architecture is a negotiated art, and it's highly political, and if you want to make buildings, there is diplomacy required.

Thom Mayne

In Paris, there has to be a presence. History becomes the most interesting when it's compared to the present. I mean there's a whole group of people that want to build new buildings that look like old buildings.

Thom Mayne

I don't know any architects that I respect who don't have their own voice. I think the difference between architecture and the other arts is your immersion in reality.

Thom Mayne

I lived in a state of rage from 12 to 20. Until college, I was beyond an outsider. I was a voyeur of life.

Thom Mayne

Who I am as an architect and the history of my work - that's clear to anybody who hires me. But I come in literally with nothing in my brain about what the building will look like.

Thom Mayne

Architecture is the story of how we see ourselves. It is the architect's job to service everyday life. (Thom Mayne)

Somehow, architecture alters the way we think about the world and the way we behave. Any serious architecture, as a litmus test, has to be that.

Thom Mayne

New York is this cacophony - a collection of radical differences, an agreement of non sequiturs. The diversity and intensity are startling.

Thom Mayne

I'm not a tabula rasa type. In some ways, the more constraints I have, the work is more interesting to me.

Thom Mayne

I believe that artistic activities change people. You do effect change. I see architecture as a political, social and cultural act - that is its primary role.

Thom Mayne

No matter what I've done, what I've tried to do, everybody says it can't be done. And it's continuous across the complete spectrum of the various kind of realities that you confront with your ideas.

Thom Mayne

We're producing spaces that accommodate human activity. And what I'm interested in is not the styling of that, but the relationship of that as it enhances that activity. And that directly connects to ideas of city-making.

Thom Mayne

I'm a private person by nature. I live in my brain half the time, not the world, and I'm not a natural negotiator. But I've learned to negotiate.

Thom Mayne

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

But often it's doubtful whether the logic of the work itself and the words used to describe it really have anything to do with each other.

Thom Mayne

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Thom Mayne

Thom Mayne - Image

Photo: EEJCC, CC BY-SA 4.0

Occupation: American Architect
Born: January 19, 1944
Quotes count: 45

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