Rem Koolhaas

Beauty isn't what I'm primarily interested in [in architecture]. I think appropriateness is more important.

— Rem Koolhaas

When shopping was still connected to the street it was also an intensification and articulation of the street. Now it has become…

— Rem Koolhaas

The Metropolis strives to reach a mythical point where the world is completely fabricated by man, so that it absolutely coincides with…

— Rem Koolhaas

One of our theories is that one can offset this excessive compulsion toward the spectacular with a return to simplicity.

— Rem Koolhaas

As more and more architecture is finally unmasked as the mere organization of flow—shopping centers, airports—it is evident that circulation is what…

— Rem Koolhaas

Manhattan has no choice but the skyward extrusion of the Grid itself; only the Skyscraper offers business the wide-open spaces of a…

— Rem Koolhaas

The great problem of the concert hall is that the shoebox is the ideal shape for acoustics but that no architect worth…

— Rem Koolhaas

One cannot completely avoid this landmark character with large buildings such as these. But the city itself is also gigantic.

— Rem Koolhaas

In a script, you have to link various episodes together, you have to generate suspense and you have to assemble things -…

— Rem Koolhaas

Each building has to be beautiful, but cheap and fast, but it lasts forever. That is already an incredible battery of seemingly…

— Rem Koolhaas

We know that Las Vegas is junk, but at the same time I think that exactly the same process and ultimately also,…

— Rem Koolhaas

The intellectual force of the West is still dominant, but other cultures are getting stronger. I expect that we will develop a…

— Rem Koolhaas

Lagos has also had a particular effect on my career. I was there early, and although it was a courageous step to…

— Rem Koolhaas

I think one of the important evolutions is that we no longer feel compulsively the need to argue, or to justify things…

— Rem Koolhaas

The people from the suburbs are bringing along their suburban values: cleanliness, orderliness, safety - dullness, in other words. As a result,…

— Rem Koolhaas

Japan lives with drastic segregation between the sublime, the ugly, and the utterly without qualities. Dominance of the last 2 categories makes…

— Rem Koolhaas

Everyone is talking about sustainability and resilience, yet all that knowledge is thrown in the bin. [Lagos is] a unique case, but…

— Rem Koolhaas

Prada is extremely directed in terms of communicating what they like and what they don't like. That is actually extremely pleasant because…

— Rem Koolhaas

I'd say that my profession ends where architectural thinking ends - architectural thinking in terms of thinking about programs and organizational structure.…

— Rem Koolhaas

There's something really interesting about current urbanism: the only model is the universal model, and there is increasingly incapacity to consider the…

— Rem Koolhaas

Miami Beach is a completely interesting hybrid because it is, on the one hand, a resort and, on the other hand, a…

— Rem Koolhaas