For Rem Koolhaas, urban expansion around the Pacific Rim is a call to arms for architectural masochists. It is the ultimate evidence that the circumstances which made the Vitruvian triad of commodity, firmness and delight so compelling for a couple of millennia have come to the end of their allotted life; that conventional architectural concerns are powerless. Faced with cities that multiply at a rate which would disgrace the pathology of a virulent superbug, architecture has to adopt different strategies to survive, and it is Koolhaas's Postmodern vision of fragmented dystopia that has encrusted itself most powerfully on the collective architectural retina.
展开▼
