“There are essentially two possibilities. One is to be, shall we say, an average architect and do the same thing everywhere. The other is to let yourself be inspired and even changed by the unique qualities of the place where you're building. We always try to take the second approach.” TryingTwoQualityPossibilityChangedBuildingApproachUniqueInspiredAverageArchitectBe Inspired Author:Rem Koolhaas
“Most old cities are now sclerotic machines that dispense known qualities in ever-greater quantities, instead of laboratories of the uncertain. Only the skyscraper offers business the wide-open spaces of a man-made Wild West, a frontier in the sky.” MenMadeSpaceCitiesQualityKnownGreaterSkyOffersMachinesWestWideQuantityUncertainFrontiersLaboratorySkyscraperOpen SpacesWild WestWide Open Spaces Author:Rem Koolhaas
“There's something really interesting about current urbanism: the only model is the universal model, and there is increasingly incapacity to consider the virtues and the qualities that are there, and then to build on them. The only thing is complete transformation.” InterestingQualityVirtueModelsUniversalTransformationCurrentsReally InterestingIncapacity Author:Rem Koolhaas
“We say we want to create beauty, identity, quality, singularity. And yet, maybe in truth these cities that we have are desired. Maybe their very characterlessness provides the best context for living.” WantCitiesQualityIdentitySingularity Author:Rem Koolhaas
“Japan lives with drastic segregation between the sublime, the ugly, and the utterly without qualities. Dominance of the last 2 categories makes mere presence of the first stunning: when beauty 'happens', it is absolutely surprising.” FirstsHappensLastsQualityMereUglyJapanCategoriesSurprisingSublimeSegregationDominanceStunningDrastic Author:Rem Koolhaas
