An older interview with Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, conducted in 2007 by German magazine Spiegel editors Matthias Matussek and Joachim Kronsbein, rediscovered by a friend of mine and still interesting to read, with some valuable insights, thus I don’t want to keep it from you.
Koolhaas tells about the CCTV project and working in autocratic Peking, the differences between himself and fellow architects like F. O. Gehry or I. M. Pei, the social possibilities of buildings, the Berlin Stadtschloss/Palace of the Republic situation – to reconstruct or not to reconstruct? – and how ugliness happens to be more interesting than beauty. And, well, about he used to write screenplays for Russ Meyer who’s rather well-known, too, for a certain kind of movie genre… (this is actually mentioned in Chuck Palahniuk’s „Snuff“, though a little contorted – Koolhaas wrote, but didn’t act).
Thanks for the good research, M.! :-)
Read the Spiegel interview here.
