I loved logic, math, computer programming. I loved systems and logic approaches. And so I just figured architecture is this perfect combination.
The process I go through in the art and the architecture, I actually want it to be almost childlike. Sometimes I think it's magical.
Even though I build buildings and I pursue my architecture, I pursue it as an artist. I deliberately keep a tiny studio. I don't want to be an architectural firm. I want to remain an artist.
We were unusually brought up; there was no gender differentiation. I was never thought of as any less than my brother.
I left science, then I went into art, but I approach things very analytically. I choose to pursue both art and architecture as completely separate fields rather than merging them.
I was always making things. Even though art was what I did every day, it didn't even occur to me that I would be an artist.
Art is very tricky because it's what you do for yourself. It's much harder for me to make those works than the monuments or the architecture.
Growing up, I thought I was white. It didn't occur to me I was Asian-American until I was studying abroad in Denmark and there was a little bit of prejudice.
How we are using up our home, how we are living and polluting the planet is frightening. It was evident when I was a child. It's more evident now.
My dad was dean of fine arts at the university. I was casting bronzes in the school foundry. I was using the university as a playground.
In art or architecture your project is only done when you say it's done. If you want to rip it apart at the eleventh hour and start all over again, you never finish. I was one of those crazy creatures.