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
Manhattanism is the one urbanistic ideology that has fed, from its conception, on the splendors and miseries of the metropolitan condition—hyper-density—without once losing faith in it as the basis for a desirable modern culture. Manhattan's architecture is a paradigm for the exploitation of congestion.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote explores the complex relationship between urban density and modern culture in Manhattan.
Rem Koolhaas highlights how Manhattan embodies both the delights and struggles of urban life through its extreme density. He suggests that this hyper-density is not just a challenge but also a foundation for a vibrant and desirable modern culture, indicating that the architecture and urban planning of Manhattan reflect the potential benefits of a crowded metropolis.
Themes
UrbanDensityCultureArchitectureMetropolis
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about architectural design, one might refer to this quote to emphasize the importance of urban density.
More from Rem Koolhaas
All quotes →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.
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
Take it that you have died today, and your life's story is ended; and henceforward regard what future time may be given you as uncovenanted surplus, and live it out in harmony with nature.
Marcus AureliusRead
As, in religion, man is governed by the products of his own brain, so in capitalistic production, he is governed by the products of his own hand.
Karl MarxRead
Future. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured.
Ambrose BierceRead
When humans invented material inequality, they came up with a way of subjugating the low-ranking like nothing ever seen before in the primate world.
Robert SapolskyRead
I believe if God doesn't give you a miracle, you are a miracle of God for somebody else's salvation.
Nick VujicicRead
Public opinion, in its raw state, gushes out in the immemorial form of the mob's fear. It is piped into central factories, and there it is flavoured and colored and put into cans.
H. L. MenckenRead