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
Architects work in two ways. One is to respond precisely to a client's needs or demands. Another is to look at what the client asks and reinterpret it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Architects balance client requests with their own creative interpretations.
This quote by Rem Koolhaas emphasizes the dual role of architects: they must not only meet the explicit demands of their clients but also reinterpret and bring their unique vision to those requests. This balancing act is crucial for creating spaces that fulfill clients' needs while also offering innovative and thought-provoking designs.
Themes
ArchitectureDesignClientInterpretationCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
An architect might use this quote in a presentation to outline their design philosophy to potential clients.
More from Rem Koolhaas
All quotes βWhat 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.
Rem KoolhaasRead
The acceptance of certain realities doesn't preclude idealism. It can lead to certain breakthroughs.
Rem KoolhaasRead
Architecture is a dangerous mix of power and importance.
Rem KoolhaasRead
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.
Rem KoolhaasRead
We live in an almost perfect stillness and work with incredible urgency.
Rem KoolhaasRead
Similar quotes
The painting is finished when the idea has disappeared.
Georges BraqueRead
I can't understand these chaps who go round American universities explaining how they write poems: It's like going round explaining how you sleep with your wife.
Philip LarkinRead
What I want, when I write a poem, is no more than this: that it be preserved in some published form so that, in principle, someone, somewhere, will be able to find it and read it. That is all I need, as a poet, and that is the beauty, the luxury of my position. My lyric is mine and remains mine. Nobody can ruin it.
James FentonRead
The business of art is to reveal the relation between man and his environment.
D. H. LawrenceRead
I love editing. It's one of my favorite parts about filmmaking.
Steven SpielbergRead
Now very often events are set up for photographers... The weddings are orchestrated about the photographers taking the picture, because if it hasn't been photographed it doesn't really exist.
Elliott ErwittRead