‘In contrast to Rem Koolhaas’s notion that freedom is an absence of
architecture – as, for example, when he describes the open space of a town
square as embodying the greatest possible freedom – we side with Rossi’s
belief that freedom in Koolhaas’s sense is vacuous; that, in fact, it is the
constraints of architecture, its formal particularity and persistence beyond
any functionalist determination, that truly embodies freedom. For in being
neither uniformly open, nor uniformly closed, it lies open to the unforeseen
as it works on our changing activities over time.’
Reiser + Umemoto ATLAS OF NOVEL TECTONICS Princeton Architectural Press
2006 page 23
Near San Sebastiano, Venice