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*** sunday times_99.07.25
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[
The cult of Koolhaas]
- rather dour
"Koolhaas - aged 55, tall, thin, balding, stooped, with an anxious mien and with a style of public speaking that is not so much monotonous as catatonic - is treated as a rock star by successive generations of wannabe architects." (Hugh Pearman, st_99.07.25)
- tightrope
"He is the
David Bowie of the built environment in everything except personal charisma, and the absence of that, strangely, seems not to matter."
(Hugh Pearman, st_99.07.25)
- flummery
"Why are you famous, I ask him? Why do you have such a following? ...
-- 'I'm still able to disappoint expectations,' he replies with a rare smile."
(Rem Koolhaas, in Hugh Pearman, st_99.07.25)
- overwhelming identity
"Even his name ... in Dutch it means "Cabbage Hare", while his first name, Rem, surreally means 'brake'. "
(Hugh Pearman, st_99.07.25)
- multi-focal
"Once he looked set to be purely a teacher and writer. Now, he is one of the rarified globe-trotting elite of in-demand architects, most of whom you know he despises."
(Hugh Pearman, st_99.07.25)
- fairly typical
"At a recent London lecture, when a tanked-up student asked him what football team he supported, Koolhaas paused for a ludicrously long time before replying: 'That depends.'"
(Hugh Pearman, st_99.07.25)
- portenteous
"This is absolutely true to the point of being rather obvious. It doesn't amount to much as a theory, you'd think - but it's the way he tells 'em. The presentation, the packaging, the air of myth and mystery ..."
(Hugh Pearman, st_99.07.25)
- window-dressing
"He gets positively animated when the question of beauty comes up."
(Hugh Pearman, st_99.07.25)
- vouchsafe
"One by one, with courtesy and efficiency, Koolhaas bats the questions away."
(Hugh Pearman, st_99.07.25)
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