Rem Koolhaas explains how his preoccupations have shifted from urbanism and the city to preservation and the countryside in this second movie filmed by Dezeen at the launch of OMA's new Rotterdam skyscraper. "It's a cliche that everybody is living in the city," the architect says.
The OMA founder believes that rapid urbanisation coupled with the increasing difficulty of building in heritage areas is creating a dichotomy for architects.
"We discovered that, unbeknown to us, a large part of the world's service is under a particular regime of preservation and therefore cannot be changed," he says. "That made us suddenly aware that the world is now divided into areas that change extremely quickly and areas that cannot change."
With most architects increasingly concerned with urbanisation, Koolhaas explains why he sees the countryside as an opportunity for OMA."It's a cliche that everybody is living in the city," he says. "Currently we are thinking about the countryside and what one could do in the countryside, and perhaps a new thinking about the countryside."