Maya Lin Studio
Over the Memorial Day weekend, we were reminded of some of our nation’s great memorials and spaces designed for commemoration, and reflection upon, those who have lost their lives in combat. One prolific designer of such spaces is American designer, architect and sculptor, Maya Lin. In 1981, while an undergraduate at Yale University, she achieved national recognition when she won a national design competition for the planned Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Maya Lin calls herself a “designer,” rather than an “architect.” Her vision and her focus are always on how space needs to be in the future, the balance and relationship with the nature and what it means to people. She focuses less on how politics influence design and more on the emotions a space would create and what it would symbolize to the user. Her belief in a space being connected and the transition from inside to outside being fluid, coupled with what a space means, has led her to create some very memorable designs.