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
It is our task to inquire into the causes that have brought about the observed differentiation, and to investigate the sequence of events that have led to the establishment of the multifarious forms of human life
Franz BoasRead
Joy and sorrow in this world pass into each other, mingling their forms and their murmurs in the twilight of life as mysterious as an overshadowed ocean, while the dazzling brightness of supreme hopes lies far off, fascinating and still, on the distant edge of the horizon
Joseph ConradRead
Where both reason and experience fall short, there occurs a vacuum that can be filled by faith.
Jostein GaarderRead
It will be necessary for us Indians - Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Parsis and all others to whom India is their home - to recognize a common flag to live and die for.
Mahatma GandhiRead
People with advantages are loath to believe that they just happen to be people with advantages.
C. Wright MillsRead
As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.
Herman MelvilleRead