Architecture is a hazardous mixture of omnipotence and impotence. It is by definition a c h a o t i c a d v e n t u r e... In other words, the utopian enterprise.
Rem KoolhaasRead
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.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on how advancements in technology have changed the nature of shopping experiences.
Rem Koolhaas highlights the transformation of shopping from a spontaneous and surprising activity to a more controlled and predictable experience due to innovations such as air conditioning, escalators, and advertising. While these advancements have allowed for larger shopping environments, they have also stripped away the element of unpredictability that once made shopping an adventure, making it a more calculated and scientific process.
In practice
Discussing the impact of technology on daily life at a conference.
Architecture is a hazardous mixture of omnipotence and impotence. It is by definition a c h a o t i c a d v e n t u r e... In other words, the utopian enterprise.
What is now called 'green architecture' is an opportunistic caricature of a much deeper consideration of the issues related to sustainability that architecture has been engaged with for many years. It was one of the first professions that was deeply concerned with these issues and that had an intellectual response to them.
The acceptance of certain realities doesn't preclude idealism. It can lead to certain breakthroughs.
Architecture is a dangerous mix of power and importance.
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.
We live in an almost perfect stillness and work with incredible urgency.
To disagree with three-fourths of the British public is one of the first requisites of sanity.
Giving is the highest expression of potency. In the very act of giving, I experience my strength, my wealth, my power. This experience of heightened vitality and potency fills me with joy. I experience myself as overflowing, spending, alive, hence as joyous.
Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proved innocent.
The presence of a noble nature, generous in its wishes, ardent in its charity, changes the lights for us: we begin to see things again in their larger, quieter masses, and to believe that we too can be seen and judged in the wholeness of our character.
Even in the mud and scum of things, something always, always sings.
Words can be meaningless. If they are used in such a way that no sharp conclusions can be drawn.
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