Recently, I’ve been collecting quotations from artists, writers, poets, photographers, and theorists whose words have inspired my thinking. Rather than simply compiling these quotations, I began to engage with them by interweaving with my own responses. I sought not only to create new layers of meaning but also to provoke deeper questions about architecture and design. This process became a form of dialogue across disciplines and time, where the boundaries between citation, commentary, and creation are blurred. It allowed me to explore architecture as a cultural and intellectual practice, one that is continually enriched by perspectives from the arts.
“I always want to design a frame or a building or structure that can be open to everybody.” Ai Weiwei and Thomas Kong
“Designing and Architecture is not a profession, it is an attitude.” László Moholy-Nagy and Thomas Kong
"Artists and architects as pioneers of urbanism."
Nicolas Bourriaud and Thomas Kong
"Artworks and architecture as a cluster of practices which takes as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent private space."
Nicolas Bourriaud and Thomas Kong
“The process of living and the process of thinking and perceiving the world happen in everyday life. I’ve found that sometimes the studio is an isolated place, an artificial place like a bubble – a bubble in which the artist or designer is by himself or herself, thinking about himself or herself. It becomes too grand a space. What happens when you don’t have a studio is that you have to be confronted with reality all the time.”
Gabriel Orozco and Thomas Kong
"Art or Architecture happens when we least expect it."
Robert Musil and Thomas Kong
"Technology and architecture are the active human interfaces with the natural world."
Ursula Le Guin and Thomas Kong
"Nothing is more powerful than an architectural idea whose time has come."
Victor Hugo and Thomas Kong
""Good poetry and architecture communicate before it is understood".
T. S. Eliot and Thomas Kong
"One function of the poet or architect at any time is to discover by his own thought and feeling what seems to him to be poetry or architecture at that time."
Wallace Stevens and Thomas Kong
“What is essential in architecture is invisible to the eye.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Thomas Kong
"Our collective memory is contained and constructed by film and architecture.”
Gary Simmons and Thomas Kong
“An artist and a designer must constantly be faced with new and always different problems.”
Cai Guo Qiang and Thomas Kong
"Sometimes the more you know and design the less you see."
Andrew Greig and Thomas Kong
"The world or architecture is a reality, not because of the way it is, but because of the possibilities it presents."
Frederick Sommer and Thomas Kong
"To me photography or architecture functions as a fossilization of time."
Hiroshi Sugimoto and Thomas Kong
"Lots of rules of design, yet no rules."
Brice Marden and Thomas Kong
"Art or design is really about having a conversation over time."
Sarah Sze and Thomas Kong
"I believe that beauty or design is a basic service."
Theaster Gates and Thomas Kong
“Many artists and architects try to construct a world for themselves: from concept to format. From knowledge to inspiration, from a methodology to learn about, and to express the world.”
Cai Guo Qiang and Thomas Kong
“Caress the detail, the divine design detail.”
Vladimir Nabokov and Thomas Kong
"It is the significance of the design detail wherein the truth lies."
Nadine Gordimer and Thomas Kong
“Artists and designers themselves are not confined, but their output is.”
Robert Smithson and Thomas Kong
“Here is what we have to offer you in its most elaborate form in graduate advising -- confusion guided by a clear sense of purpose.” Gordon Matta Clark and Thomas Kong
“A novelist and an architect are, like all mortals, more fully at home on the surface of the present than in the ooze of the past.” Vladimir Nabokov and Thomas Kong
"The pages and spaces are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words and lives being there, written in invisible ink and clamouring to become visible."
Vladimir Nabokov and Thomas Kong
It ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk like we know what we’re talking about when we talk about love and architecture. Raymond Carver and Thomas Kong
You’ve got to work with your mistakes and intuitions until they look intended. Understand?
Raymond Carver and Thomas Kong
If you only read the architecture books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. Haruki Murakami and Thomas Kong
I dream and design. Sometimes I think that’s the only right thing to do.
Haruki Murakami and Thomas Kong
Death or unbuilding is not the opposite of life or building, but a part of it.
Haruki Murakami and Thomas Kong
"The more we teach architecture, the less students learn."
Joseph Albers and Thomas Kong
“Designing and Architecture is not a profession, it is an attitude.” László Moholy-Nagy and Thomas Kong
"Artists and architects as pioneers of urbanism."
Nicolas Bourriaud and Thomas Kong
"Artworks and architecture as a cluster of practices which takes as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent private space."
Nicolas Bourriaud and Thomas Kong
“The process of living and the process of thinking and perceiving the world happen in everyday life. I’ve found that sometimes the studio is an isolated place, an artificial place like a bubble – a bubble in which the artist or designer is by himself or herself, thinking about himself or herself. It becomes too grand a space. What happens when you don’t have a studio is that you have to be confronted with reality all the time.”
Gabriel Orozco and Thomas Kong
"Art or Architecture happens when we least expect it."
Robert Musil and Thomas Kong
"Technology and architecture are the active human interfaces with the natural world."
Ursula Le Guin and Thomas Kong
"Nothing is more powerful than an architectural idea whose time has come."
Victor Hugo and Thomas Kong
""Good poetry and architecture communicate before it is understood".
T. S. Eliot and Thomas Kong
"One function of the poet or architect at any time is to discover by his own thought and feeling what seems to him to be poetry or architecture at that time."
Wallace Stevens and Thomas Kong
“What is essential in architecture is invisible to the eye.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Thomas Kong
"Our collective memory is contained and constructed by film and architecture.”
Gary Simmons and Thomas Kong
“An artist and a designer must constantly be faced with new and always different problems.”
Cai Guo Qiang and Thomas Kong
"Sometimes the more you know and design the less you see."
Andrew Greig and Thomas Kong
"The world or architecture is a reality, not because of the way it is, but because of the possibilities it presents."
Frederick Sommer and Thomas Kong
"To me photography or architecture functions as a fossilization of time."
Hiroshi Sugimoto and Thomas Kong
"Lots of rules of design, yet no rules."
Brice Marden and Thomas Kong
"Art or design is really about having a conversation over time."
Sarah Sze and Thomas Kong
"I believe that beauty or design is a basic service."
Theaster Gates and Thomas Kong
“Many artists and architects try to construct a world for themselves: from concept to format. From knowledge to inspiration, from a methodology to learn about, and to express the world.”
Cai Guo Qiang and Thomas Kong
“Caress the detail, the divine design detail.”
Vladimir Nabokov and Thomas Kong
"It is the significance of the design detail wherein the truth lies."
Nadine Gordimer and Thomas Kong
“Artists and designers themselves are not confined, but their output is.”
Robert Smithson and Thomas Kong
“Here is what we have to offer you in its most elaborate form in graduate advising -- confusion guided by a clear sense of purpose.” Gordon Matta Clark and Thomas Kong
“A novelist and an architect are, like all mortals, more fully at home on the surface of the present than in the ooze of the past.” Vladimir Nabokov and Thomas Kong
"The pages and spaces are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words and lives being there, written in invisible ink and clamouring to become visible."
Vladimir Nabokov and Thomas Kong
It ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk like we know what we’re talking about when we talk about love and architecture. Raymond Carver and Thomas Kong
You’ve got to work with your mistakes and intuitions until they look intended. Understand?
Raymond Carver and Thomas Kong
If you only read the architecture books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. Haruki Murakami and Thomas Kong
I dream and design. Sometimes I think that’s the only right thing to do.
Haruki Murakami and Thomas Kong
Death or unbuilding is not the opposite of life or building, but a part of it.
Haruki Murakami and Thomas Kong
"The more we teach architecture, the less students learn."
Joseph Albers and Thomas Kong