The essential thing with architecture, the paradox, is that your whole ingenuity and intelligence is invested in developing prototypes that will never be repeated.

That feels really dumb, particularly in the current moment. Under socialism you could have spent your entire life working on the right kitchen plan, or the right prefabricated staircase, maybe.

But we are in this limbo where we are not mass producing, and also, weirdly, not working for the masses. When you look at how people in other areas can rely on single ideas or repeatable elements and actually strike it really rich, it’s almost humiliating.

– Rem Koolhaas, Fantastic Man No. 31 for SPRING & SUMMER 2020