SPIEGEL: Is it true that only 5 percent of your designs are actually built?
Koolhaas: Yes.
SPIEGEL: That must be frustrating.

Koolhaas: That’s our dirty secret. We architects are celebrated as heroes — but humiliation is part of our daily lives. The biggest part of our work for competitions and bid invitations disappears automatically. No other profession would accept such conditions. But you can’t look at these designs as waste. They’re ideas; they will survive in books.

<…>

SPIEGEL: Do you or don’t you like our building?
Koolhaas: You’ll get used to it. But I believe you have to conquer the lobby. Buy two rugs, sew the two rugs together, then buy a third one and declare the lobby occupied. Occupy SPIEGEL!
SPIEGEL: Mr. Koolhaas, thank you for this interview.


Сейчас станет посвободнее, я вооружусь камерой и напишу развернутый пост про студию с картинками. А после отправлюсь на несколько дней в Будапешт.


Meanwhile in Rotterdam