“There is no plateau of resting or stabilising. Once you are interested in how things evolve, you have a kind of never-ending perspective, because it means you are interested in articulating the evolution, and therefore the potential change, the potential redefinition.” KindMeanPerspectiveEvolutionEvolveNever EndingArticulating Author:Rem Koolhaas
“The great problem of the concert hall is that the shoebox is the ideal shape for acoustics but that no architect worth their names wants to build a shoebox.” WantProblemNamesShapesIdealsHallsConcertsArchitectAcoustics Author:Rem Koolhaas
“If you have this reputation you can sit back and endure it, or you can try to do things with it.” IfsTryingEndureReputation Author:Rem Koolhaas
“Influence is a very unpleasant subject and I deal with it in a maybe irresponsible way, which is to really ignore it. It would be a nightmare if we started to really think about it; it would tie our hands, it would tie everyone elses hands.” IfsThinkingWayHandsWould BeDealsInfluenceSubjectsTiesNightmareIrresponsible 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
“When air conditioning, escalators, and advertising appeared, shopping expanded its scale, but also limited its spontaneity. And it became much more predictable, almost scientific. What had once been the most surprising became the most manipulated.” AirScalesAdvertisingShoppingSurprisingSpontaneityPredictableConditioningAir ConditioningEscalators Author:Rem Koolhaas
“When shopping was still connected to the street it was also an intensification and articulation of the street. Now it has become utterly independent - contained, controlled, surveyed.” StillsStreetsIndependentConnectedControlledShoppingArticulation 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
“As more and more architecture is finally unmasked as the mere organization of flow - shopping centers, airports - it is evident that circulation is what makes or breaks public architecture.” BreakFlowOrganizationMereArchitectureShoppingEvidentAirportsCirculationMake Or BreakShopping Centers Author:Rem Koolhaas
“In this branch of utopian real estate, architecture is no longer the art of designing buildings so much as the brutal skyward extrusion of whatever site the developer has managed to assemble.” ArtRealDesignBuildingArchitectureBranchesBrutalSiteEstatesUtopianDevelopers Author:Rem Koolhaas