Rem Koolhaas Quotations

Rem Koolhaas is a Dutch architect, former journalist and screenwriter who studied architecture at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and co-founded the Office for Metropolitan Architecture.

Sourced

Architecture is a dangerous mixture of power and impotence.
- From S,M,L,XL, New York: The Monacelli Press, 1995
Find optimism in the inevitable.
- From the New York Times article on Koolhaas and Dubai appearing March 3rd, 2008. Available here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/arts/design/03kool.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Rem+Koolhaas&st=nyt&oref=slogin
The city is no longer. We can leave the theatre now.
- From "Generic City", published in S,M,L,XL, New York: The Monacelli Press, 1995
Bigness is no longer part of any urban tissue. (...) Its subtext is fuck context.
- From "Bigness or the problem of Large", published in S,M,L,XL, New York: The Monacelli Press, 1995
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.
- From "Learning Japanese", published in S,M,L,XL, New York: The Monacelli Press, 1995

Attributed

Architecture can't do anything that culture doesn't.
We were making sand castles. Now we swim in the sea that swept them away.
No money, no details. Just concepts.