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"The intellectual force of the West is still dominant, but other cultures are getting stronger. I expect that we will develop a new way of thinking in architecture and urban planning, and that less will be based on our models."
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"It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect."

"Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before."

"The dialogue of architecture has been centered too long around the idea of truth."

"I was planning to go into architecture. But when I arrived, architecture was filled up. Acting was right next to it, so I signed up for acting instead."

"Modern architecture predominately specializes in designing what are essentially dimly lit caves."

"Rather than wait to see what the day or future holds, why not design and plan the future you want to experience?"

"The team architecture means setting up an organization that helps people produce that great work in teams."

"The White House was designed by Hoban a noted Irish-American architect and I have no doubt that he believed by incorporating several features of the Dublin style he would make it more homelike for any President of Irish descent. It was a long wait but I appreciate his efforts."

"Organic architecture seeks superior sense of use and a finer sense of comfort, expressed in organic simplicity."
Explore more quotes by Rem Koolhaas

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

"Escape from the architecture ghetto is one of the major drivers and has been from the very beginning."

"It's a weird city because the uglier the weather, the more beautiful the city. And the uglier the buildings, the more coherent the city."

"The areas of consensus shift unbelievably fast; the bubbles of certainty are constantly exploding."

"We say we want to create beauty, identity, quality, singularity. And yet, maybe in truth these cities that we have are desired. Maybe their very characterlessness provides the best context for living."

"When shopping was still connected to the street it was also an intensification and articulation of the street. Now it has become utterly independent - contained, controlled, surveyed."

"Influence is a very unpleasant subject and I deal with it in a maybe irresponsible way, which is to really ignore it. It would be a nightmare if we started to really think about it; it would tie our hands, it would tie everyone else's hands."

"I'd say that my profession ends where architectural thinking ends - architectural thinking in terms of thinking about programs and organizational structure. These abstractions play a role in many other disciplines, and those disciplines are now defining their 'architectures' as well."

"But now sustainability is such a political category that it's getting more and more difficult to think about it in a serious way. Sustainability has become an ornament."

"Each building has to be beautiful, but cheap and fast, but it lasts forever. That is already an incredible battery of seemingly contradictory demands. So yes, I'm definitely perhaps contradictory person, but I operate in very contradictory times."
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