"I think one of the important evolutions is that we no longer feel compulsively the need to argue, or to justify things on a kind of rational level. We are much more willing to admit that certain things are completely instinctive and others are really intellectual"
About this Quote
Koolhaas is poking at a modern reflex: the compulsion to launder every aesthetic or ethical choice through a spreadsheet of reasons. As an architect who’s spent decades moving between theory-saturated manifestos and the messy reality of building, he’s describing a cultural detente between two kinds of truth. One is the clean, defensible narrative clients, juries, and critics demand: the “rational level” that turns taste into policy. The other is what actually drives most decisions in design and in life: a gut pull, a mood, a desire for friction or comfort that arrives before language does.
The intent isn’t anti-intellectual so much as anti-alibi. Koolhaas is giving permission to stop pretending every choice is the inevitable outcome of analysis. That matters in architecture, a field where justification has historically been a moral theater: modernism’s functionalist sermons, postmodernism’s semiotic explanations, today’s sustainability dashboards. His “evolution” suggests fatigue with that performance and a new honesty about mixed motives.
The subtext is also a warning. When societies stop “arguing” and “justifying,” they can become freer, but they can also become softer targets for vibes-based persuasion. Instinct can be a form of clarity; it can also be a shortcut that dodges accountability. Koolhaas’s real provocation is the split: some things deserve to stay instinctive, others demand to be “really intellectual,” and maturity is knowing which is which. In a culture of hot takes and brand identities, that discrimination is the rarest skill.
The intent isn’t anti-intellectual so much as anti-alibi. Koolhaas is giving permission to stop pretending every choice is the inevitable outcome of analysis. That matters in architecture, a field where justification has historically been a moral theater: modernism’s functionalist sermons, postmodernism’s semiotic explanations, today’s sustainability dashboards. His “evolution” suggests fatigue with that performance and a new honesty about mixed motives.
The subtext is also a warning. When societies stop “arguing” and “justifying,” they can become freer, but they can also become softer targets for vibes-based persuasion. Instinct can be a form of clarity; it can also be a shortcut that dodges accountability. Koolhaas’s real provocation is the split: some things deserve to stay instinctive, others demand to be “really intellectual,” and maturity is knowing which is which. In a culture of hot takes and brand identities, that discrimination is the rarest skill.
Quote Details
| Topic | Reason & Logic |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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