Politics & Power Quote by Tadao Ando

Restlessness is doing a lot of work here. When Tadao Ando says you should “try to make something new,” he’s not offering a Silicon Valley pep talk; he’s sketching an ethic of practice in which originality is a discipline, not a vibe. Ando’s buildings are famously restrained - concrete, light, silence - yet they’re never nostalgic. “New” in his mouth reads less like novelty and more like an insistence that architecture must continuously re-earn its right to exist in the present tense.

The second clause is where the cultural voltage spikes. “Of course, America is the world leader in economics today” lands with the calm certainty of a client briefing, and that’s the point. Ando is acknowledging the gravitational pull of money on the built environment: if economics sets the tempo, architecture is forced to dance to it, whether it wants to or not. The phrase “of course” is a small surrender, an admission that the context of global capital isn’t a debate but an atmosphere.

Subtextually, he’s describing the bargain modern architects are asked to strike: innovate, but do it inside a marketplace that rewards spectacle, speed, and scale. Coming from a Japanese architect whose work often resists commercial loudness, the line carries a faint edge - not anti-American, but wary of economic dominance masquerading as cultural destiny. It’s a reminder that “new” is never just an aesthetic choice; it’s a negotiation with power, patronage, and the era’s prevailing economic story.