The Irish Times

Thom Mayne

Genius or chancer, that was what architects were asking themselves after Pritzker prizewinning architect Thom Mayne's recent talk in Dublin's National Concert Hall. Architects came in their droves eager as always for insights on how others design. Those architects who also teach usually explain their work and the design process in a clear way. Yet Los Angeles-based Mayne, who's gained a reputation as a maverick architect, took a more philosophical approach. "Architecture is nothing more than the concretisation of the world. I'm redefining the notion of logic and how we interpret the world," he said. "I'm interested in reconfiguring our world and finding a way of making connections." The Pritzker Prize is said to be the architectural equivalent of the Nobel prize for literature and this lecture was beginning to sound like an attempt by a renowned poet to describe basic writing skills. Mayne did have more definitive things to say, such as how he began his career by making models for nearly 15 years as a way of organising ideas in a more realistic way than was possible through drawings. This helps to explain how he creates his complex structures that combine an extraordinary mix of elements.