At that time [90th in Lagos], if you drove through the city, you drove through a foreground that always seemed to be… — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
Lagos has also had a particular effect on my career. I was there early, and although it was a courageous step to… — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
Lagos was a city that had been turned against itself. There was a bridge that became the perfect trap for crimes, which… — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
Lagos was the ultimate dysfunctional city - but actually, in terms of all the initiatives and ingenuity, it mobilised an incredibly beautiful,… — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
The real thing we tried to look at is what happens to a society when the state is absent. At that point,… — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
Lagos was not very inviting even to Lagosians. It was considered a no-go zone, almost in its entirety. — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
It was a book [George Packer written on our presence in Nigeria] that was killed by the response of other people. Which… — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
That has been another interesting discovery: that basically a city [Lagos] could recover from a really deep, deep, deep pit. — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
Manhattan has generated a shameless architecture that has been loved in direct proportion to its defiant lack of self-hatred, has been respected exactly to… — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
In a script, you have to link various episodes together, you have to generate suspense and you have to assemble things - through editing,… — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
The beauty of my profession [architecture] lies in its randomness and surprise. And don't think I can choose my projects. I have to build… — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
Our office acts like a kind of educational establishment and we are very careful who we educate. — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
We discovered a person in Lagos who had a fish stall, and within a single square metre she carried two children all the way… — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
Nigeria [in 1990] was all rumour, an unbelievable amount of rumour - largely about crime and almost mythical manifestations of evil. — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
Let's put it this way: One can be happy or unhappy in a building. But some buildings make us more depressed than others. — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
Nigeria was a blank on the map - there weren't even any maps. The US State Department, everyone said don't go there. It was… — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
The work in S, M, L, XL was almost suicidal. It required so much effort that our office almost went bankrupt. — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
Manhattan has no choice but the skyward extrusion of the Grid itself; only the Skyscraper offers business the wide-open spaces of a man-made Wild… — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
The stronger the identity, the more it imprisons, the more it resists expansion, interpretation, renewal, contradiction. — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
Why I talked about political correctness: the colonial is now such a major taboo that any achievement of the colonial period, or any generosity… — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
The thing is that I have a really intense, almost compulsive need to record. But it doesn't end there, because what I record is… — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share Image
![“At that time [90th in Lagos], if you drove through the city, you drove through a foreground that always seemed to be incredibly dramatic and incredibly agonised - smoking, burning, incredible compression. In the first year we stayed on the ground and went everywhere. But then in order to discover…” quote by Rem Koolhaas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/aea/rem-koolhaas-5371_abandoned_at-that-time-90th-in-lagos-if-you-drove_669157.jpg)
![“Lagos was a city that had been turned against itself. There was a bridge that became the perfect trap for crimes, which began with nails being scattered to cause flat tyres. If the driver stopped, the car would be dismantled in 20 minutes and the parts thrown overboard [to people waiting below]…” quote by Rem Koolhaas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/05d/rem-koolhaas-5371_bridges_lagos-was-a-city-that-had-been-turned-ag_1402665.jpg)
![“It was a book [George Packer written on our presence in Nigeria] that was killed by the response of other people. Which sounds quite cowardly, perhaps, but it was the first manifestation of what is currently a really big issue: how political correctness defines the limits of what you can do. In…” quote by Rem Koolhaas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/ff5/rem-koolhaas-5371_africa_it-was-a-book-george-packer-written-on-o_3159314.jpg)
![“That has been another interesting discovery: that basically a city [Lagos] could recover from a really deep, deep, deep pit.” quote by Rem Koolhaas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/61e/rem-koolhaas-5371_cities_that-has-been-another-interesting-discov_15915.jpg)
![“The beauty of my profession [architecture] lies in its randomness and surprise. And don't think I can choose my projects. I have to build what's offered to me.” quote by Rem Koolhaas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/712/rem-koolhaas-5371_architecture_the-beauty-of-my-profession-architecture_97486.jpg)
![“Nigeria [in 1990] was all rumour, an unbelievable amount of rumour - largely about crime and almost mythical manifestations of evil.” quote by Rem Koolhaas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/72f/rem-koolhaas-5371_amount_nigeria-in-1990-was-all-rumour-an-unbeli_125862.jpg)
