Rem Koolhaas on Sustainability

In this transcript from a speech delivered at Harvard, Koolhaas walks through the history of ecology in architecture, expressing a deep interest in the work of Buckminster Fuller. He concludes with the observation that the field of architecture has been far too shallow in their nods toward sustainability.

"Embarrassingly, we have been equating responsibility with literal greening. The boutique of Ann Demeulemeester in Seoul, for example, covered entirely in green. Even significant buildings by serious architects, such as the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, for me almost fall into the same category. What is very difficult about architecture today is that architects themselves are the main commentators, using a language that is either outrageously innocent or deeply calculated – probably both – but in a shocking way."