MAYA LIN

 Architect & artist

 A balance between art and architecture.
 Body of work includes large-scale site-specific
installations, intimate studio artworks, architectural
works and memorials.
 Landscape is the context and the source of inspiration
for Ms. Lin's art.
 Merging rational and technological order with notions of
beauty and the transcendental.
 Utilizing technological methods to study and visualize
the natural world

“I feel I exist on the b o u n d a r i e s .

Somewhere between s c i e n c e a n d a r t , art
and arc hitecture , public and private, east
and west. I am always trying to find a
balance between these opposing forces,
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f i n d i n g t h e p l a c e w h e r e o p p o s i t e s m e e t .”
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design that bridges the east and west
RAFAEL: Now the founders of MOCA had as one of its
goals to break down the stereotypes of Chinese people,
Chinese culture. Is breaking down stereotypes also one of
the goals in the design for MOCA?
MAYA: Well I think consciously from the very beginning,
obviously a lot of my work has been time’s deemed Zen
or very Asian in feeling. I sometimes wonder because I’m
coming out of certainness that Scandinavian design
shaker, design 50’s modernism. If I weren’t Chinese,
would they have attached those labels? Would they
instead have said you’re minimalist? So I’m looking at
everything from restaurants, to other museums to things
that have been called Asian in design because I don’t
want to become a stereotype in this. In fact, I’m acutely
aware of falling into this trap and I really want to explore
that as far as why is this Asian-looking? And maybe I
really don’t want to fall into the trap of making something
that looks Asian style. This is a museum that will bridge
Chinatown and Soho. Once again, old and new. We’re
going to be stripping it bare to the absolute joints so that
you begin to see the old building itself, the old structure
which probably is 100 years old. On top of that will be
exposing all the stone work in the basement as you come
up in the court yard. So the blending is really about an
inner layer that’s older, surrounded by a more modern
skin which will probably announce to the city this is a
museum, this is a new museum that will really take you
through a history, a timeline.
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RAFAEL: You said that you grew up, although it was pretty unusual for Chinese
American families, you grew up pretty oblivious to your Chinese American culture. How
come?
MAYA: I think my brother and I were the only Chinese Americans I remember there was
one friend of mine who was half-American, half-Chinese. And there really wasn’t a
community. I think when there isn’t a community and you’re the only person, you look at
every other child’s face and you think you look like that. You don’t realize you’re
different. And I think it was actually, it’s a college town, Ohio University. And I think in an
academic world Where your color, your race, your sex was not as important as, i think,
what was in your mind. And so I was really happily buffered from that. I think I have
encountered, since that time, certain situations where it’s bound to happen at times.
The most public, I think was in Washington, but I think even during the Vietnam
Memorial and the fact that I didn’t even realize it would be an issue. It took me about 8
months being in Washington ‘til I kind of asked the veterans, is this a problem? They
had been trying to protect me from it, they haven’t told me about the letters that were
coming in.
RAFAEL: And what did the letters say?
MAYA: Why would you let a gook design this? I mean I remember reporters saying, well
don’t you think it’s ironic the war was an Asian war and you’re of Asian descent? And I
just said point blank, well that’s irrelevant. It took me 9 months to realize I might see it
that way, but that’s not how a lot of people saw.
RAFAEL: You also said that your work exists often exists in the boundary between east
and west. How does that metaphor work?
MAYA: I think this metaphor is perfect for what I do in my work that being Chinese
American, you’re of both cultures. And I think this entire building will be on the edge or
in between, or perhaps it’s going to step in certain areas more than to one world than
the next, but this becomes just an incredible opportunity from an architectural point of
view to explore that borderline situation and I think it’s really sometimes you feel you’re
in between. Other times, you feel you’re part of both and I think that’s something we’ll
be exploring throughout.
  The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a
national war memorial in Washington,
VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL D.C. It honors members of the U.S.
armed forces who fought in the Vietnam
War and who died in service or are still
unaccounted for.

 Its construction and related issues have

been the source of controversies, some
of which have resulted in additions to the
memorial complex. The memorial
currently consists of three separate parts:
the Three Soldiers statue, the Vietnam
Women's Memorial, and the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial Wall, which is the
best-known part of the memorial.

PRINCIPLES FOR THE

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

 The Wall/Memorial is blended in as part

of the landscape instead of asserting its
dominant presence regardless its
environment: one end points at the
Lincoln Memorial, and the other points at
the Washington Monument; together,
they make up a trilogy—the self
becoming part of the other or wise versa;

 Pay attention to interrelations;

1. Importance of compromise

 Where to put an American flag?

 Where it is necessary to add some
statues and sculpture pieces to express
veterans’ feelings;
 The wisdom of American politics is to
compromise, not to prevail

2. Political vs. Apolitical approach

 Though Maya Lin adopted an apolitical

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approach, her design makes a strong

statement regarding whether we should
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glorify the war or value lost lives;

 This is a consequential claim that is made
of empathy, logos, ethos, and pathos
 Symbolic Design
empathy and sympathy
Lin's conception was to create an opening or a wound in the
 are relationships based on Shared
earth to symbolize the gravity of the loss of the soldiers. The
Emotions & Understanding.
design was initially controversial for what was an
Empathy is understood as the ability
unconventional and non-traditional design for a war memorial. to mutually experience the thoughts,
Opponents of the design also voiced objection because of Lin's emotions, and direct experience of
Asian heritage. However, the memorial has since become an others without them being directly
important pilgrimage site for relatives and friends of the communicated intentionally.
American military casualties in Vietnam, and personal tokens
 Sympathy is a feeling of care and
and mementos are left at the wall daily in their memory.
understanding for suffering beings.

 Both have similar usage but differ in

empathy: an encounter their emotional meaning.
between the self and the other ● ● ●

 1. the intellectual identification with Empathy vs. Sympathy

or vicarious experiencing of the
feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of
another.
 2. the imaginative ascribing to an
object, as a natural object or work of
art, feelings or attitudes present in
oneself: By means of empathy, a
great painting becomes a mirror of
the self.
considerate, thoughtful
 Empathy): why the
chronological order in name
listing makes sense in this
case;
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Empathy
 The ability to co-experience and relate to
the thoughts, emotions, or experience of
another without them being
communicated directly by the individual
 Imagine thoughts of person you feel
sympathetic for.
Sympathy
 The ability to understand and to support
the emotional situation or experience of
another being with compassion and
sensitivity
 Feel sorry for; Feel pity for; Feel bad for
someone
There is a fine line between sympathy
and a patronizing attitude

 The power of projecting one's ● ● ●

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personality into (and so fully

comprehending) the object of
contemplation.
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