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
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.
In practice
An architect might use this quote in a presentation to outline their design philosophy to potential clients.
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.
Painting is with me but another word for feeling.
Now I found it in writing sentences. You can write that sentence in a way that you would have written it last year. Or you can write it in the way of the exquisite nuance that is sriting in your mind now. But that takes a lot of ... waiting for the right word to come.
What a glorious garden of wonders the lights of Broadway would be to anyone lucky enough to be unable to read.
The essential is to excite the spectators. If that means playing Hamlet on a flying trapeze or in an aquarium, you do it.
If I can't dance, I don't care if my dances are ever done again!
When you are painting you should take a flat mirror and often look at your work within it, and it will then be seen in reverse, and will appear to be by the hand of some other master, and you will be better able to judge of its faults than in any other way.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.