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
People can inhabit anything. And they can be miserable in anything and ecstatic in anything. More and more I think that architecture has nothing to do with it. Of course, that's both liberating and alarming.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The experience of individuals in a space is independent of the architecture itself.
Rem Koolhaas suggests that our emotional states—whether we feel joy or despair—are not solely determined by our physical environment. This thought can be both liberating, as it implies personal agency, and alarming, as it confronts the notion that architecture can inherently improve our well-being.
Themes
ArchitectureEmotionExperienceLiberationAgency
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a lecture on the emotional impact of design in urban planning.
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
The difference between a builder and an architect is that an architect also cares about desire, about dreams.
Renzo PianoRead
Modern buildings of our time are so huge that one must group them. Often the space between these buildings is as important as the buildings themselves.
Ludwig Mies Van Der RoheRead
Architects design buildings; that's what we do, so we have to go with the flow; and, even though I'm still an old Leftie, global capitalism does have its good side. It's broken down barriers - the Berlin Wall, the Soviet Union - it's raised a lot of people up economically, and for architects, it has meant that we can work around the world.
Richard RogersRead
The space within becomes the reality of the building.
Frank Lloyd WrightRead
Most of the wonderful places in the world were not made by architects but by the people.
Christopher AlexanderRead
Contemporary architects tend to impose modernity on something. There is a certain concern for history but it’s not very deep. I understand that time has changed, we have evolved. But I don’t want to forget the beginning. A lasting architecture has to have roots.
I. M. PeiRead