Rem Koolhaas and Richard Ingersoll

During the International Architecture Congress of June 2016 held in Pamplona, Rem Koolhaas and Richard Ingersoll talked about the political role of architecture.

Richard Ingersoll: Delirious New York remains a masterpiece, a text that introduced to architectural discourse a new level of narrative. But this story of the “culture of congestion” can be attributed to laissez-faire capitalism, which at that moment in the first half of the 20th century still had claims to breeding citizenship. But today the same laissez-faire system produces only big symbols, inequalities, and a damaged planet. So where do you stand? You often lead us to the conclusion that this is the system we have to work in, and we can’t leave it.

Rem Koolhaas: There is really something very fundamental in the issue of reporting, which is what I have always been doing, but I also think that I have been systematically very critical of the laissez-faire situation. I mean if you read the Harvard volumes we produced, you realize that they are a critical warning about the hysterical level of consumption. So there is a big difference between my political position and my role as a reporter...

Cosentino: Koolhaas & Ingersoll