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. — 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
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
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
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
Our office acts like a kind of educational establishment and we are very careful who we educate. — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share
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
Nigeria [in 1990] was all rumour, an unbelievable amount of rumour - largely about crime and almost mythical manifestations of evil. — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share
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
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
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
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
The stronger the identity, the more it imprisons, the more it resists expansion, interpretation, renewal, contradiction. — Rem Koolhaas Copy Share
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
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
