Too many architects only talk to other architects that share the same views, and are becoming increasingly irrelevant as a result, according to OMA founder Rem Koolhaas.
In his keynote speech at the American Institute of Architects' annual convention last week, Koolhaas said that architects were too self-referential and that architecture as an industry was too slow to keep up with the "revolutions" that are shaping the modern world.
"Architecture has a serious problem today in that people who are not alike don't communicate," said Koolhaas, according to a transcript of the talk published on the website of US magazine Fast Company.
"I'm actually more interested in communicating with people I disagree with than people I agree with." "We're working in a world where so many different cultures are operating at the same time, each with their own value system," the Dutch architect added. "If you want to be relevant, you need to be open to an enormous multiplicity of values, interpretations, and readings."
The CCTV tower in Beijing is one of the most important projects by Koolhaas' studio OMA, which he founded in 1975
Koolhaas said that the amount of time spent realising "the least architectural effort" was five or six years, which was "really too slow for the revolutions that are taking place".
But he said that the adoption of architectural terminology and thinking by Silicon Valley companies could suggest a new...