Identification parade: Manfredo Tafuri and Rem Koolhaas

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What do Manfredo Tafuri, the Italian architectural historian, and Rem Koolhaas, the renowned Dutch architect, have in common? At first glance, not much. Tafuri, who passed away in 1994, referenced Koolhaas in his influential 1980s work, La sfera e il labirinto, but not favorably, describing Koolhaas's approach as a “cynical game” and his drawings as “jokes.” Conversely, Koolhaas critiqued Tafuri in a 1978 interview, suggesting that Tafuri and his contemporaries harbor a disdain for architecture, viewing it as “a set of corpses in the morgue.” He criticized Tafuri's lack of engagement with the realities of architecture, particularly skyscrapers, which Tafuri labeled as symbols of capitalism's darker side. Despite Koolhaas's harsh assessment, there is reason to believe that Tafuri's ideological stance on capitalism significantly influenced Koolhaas's own architectural philosophy. To understand the nuanced relationship between these two figures, it is essential to briefly explore Tafuri’s intellectual journey, which reveals how their divergent perspectives on architecture and capitalism intersect, even if they never personally interacted.