"The work in S, M, L, XL was almost suicidal. It required so much effort that our office almost went bankrupt"
About this Quote
“Almost suicidal” is an architect’s version of gallows humor: a deliberately excessive phrase that makes the labor behind S, M, L, XL feel bodily, not bureaucratic. Rem Koolhaas isn’t just describing a tough project; he’s attacking the polite myth that architectural ideas arrive as clean sketches and glide into glossy monographs. Here, the monograph is the work.
The intent is twofold. First, to frame the book as an ordeal that matches its ambition. S, M, L, XL wasn’t a tidy portfolio; it was an unruly hybrid of theory, reportage, diary, and visual noise, a print object that tried to metabolize the speed and contradiction of late-20th-century cities. Calling the process “almost suicidal” signals that the form demanded a kind of self-erasure: endless editing, image hunting, design decisions, permissions, deadlines. “Our office almost went bankrupt” snaps the drama back to the ledger, revealing the real cost of cultural production: not inspiration, but payroll.
The subtext is a critique of architecture’s economy of prestige. Buildings are capital-intensive, but so is authorship when you insist on making something that doesn’t behave like marketing. Koolhaas positions himself and OMA as willing to risk institutional stability to produce a text that could compete with buildings as a site of architectural power.
Context matters: early 1990s, OMA still consolidating its global status, architecture culture shifting toward media, branding, and theory. The quote reads like a warning and a flex: if you want a book that rewires the conversation, it may try to kill you first.
The intent is twofold. First, to frame the book as an ordeal that matches its ambition. S, M, L, XL wasn’t a tidy portfolio; it was an unruly hybrid of theory, reportage, diary, and visual noise, a print object that tried to metabolize the speed and contradiction of late-20th-century cities. Calling the process “almost suicidal” signals that the form demanded a kind of self-erasure: endless editing, image hunting, design decisions, permissions, deadlines. “Our office almost went bankrupt” snaps the drama back to the ledger, revealing the real cost of cultural production: not inspiration, but payroll.
The subtext is a critique of architecture’s economy of prestige. Buildings are capital-intensive, but so is authorship when you insist on making something that doesn’t behave like marketing. Koolhaas positions himself and OMA as willing to risk institutional stability to produce a text that could compete with buildings as a site of architectural power.
Context matters: early 1990s, OMA still consolidating its global status, architecture culture shifting toward media, branding, and theory. The quote reads like a warning and a flex: if you want a book that rewires the conversation, it may try to kill you first.
Quote Details
| Topic | Work |
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