“I don’t get it. It seems completely obvious in my mind what we are trying to do,” he said. “It’s like asking James Joyce about Finnegan’s Wake as he’s looking out the window. It’s logical in his brain and it’s the same with me.”
GSD Assistant Professor in Architecture Joseph R. MacDonald said Mayne’s talent is not limited to a narrow definition.
“Thom Mayne doesn’t have a specialty, he brings his unique skills to every project he is invited to,” he said.
Mayne said he believes contemporary architecture is defined by a cleavage between aesthetically based interpretations—the way a building looks—and values based interpretations—what a project symbolizes and contributes. Mayne said he strives to couch his projects in the latter rubric.
“I’m a product of the sixties and the social and cultural times,” Mayne said. “When they put a moon lander on the moon, that was really something.”
More than anything else, Mayne said he flees from the definition of architecture as either radical or successful, instead trying to phrase his own questions and articulate our culture’s problems.
“We are just making buildings here,” Mayne said. “We’re not putting people on the moon. Anything is possible [when you are] asking questions.”