{"id":6601,"date":"2026-04-02T10:15:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/?p=6601"},"modified":"2026-04-10T15:36:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T15:36:42","slug":"we-have-to-grow-up-as-an-industry-says-reinier-de-graaf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/2026\/04\/02\/we-have-to-grow-up-as-an-industry-says-reinier-de-graaf\/","title":{"rendered":"“We have to grow up as an industry” says Reinier de Graaf"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"OMA<\/div>\n

Reinier de Graaf<\/a> wants architects to admit they have lost all credibility. But, the OMA<\/a> partner tells Dezeen in this interview<\/a>, his new book<\/a> is not looking to pick a fight.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Something is up with architecture, and it is not going away,” De Graaf writes on the opening page of Architecture Against Architecture, published last week by Verso<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The book, whose subtitle declares itself “a manifesto”, is De Graaf’s attempt to confront the problems he sees as plaguing the profession.<\/p>\n

“The worst possible reception would be indifference”<\/strong><\/p>\n

“This is emphatically a book I wrote for people to either really agree or really disagree with,” he told Dezeen. “I think the worst possible reception of this book would be indifference.”<\/p>\n

It calls on readers to accept two premises: one, that architecture “has lost all credibility”; and two, that “it is high time that architects openly, in the face of the whole world, commit to a fresh start”.<\/p>\n

Across 14 chapters, De Graaf takes aim at everything from the dominance of famous, ageing individuals in architecture firms to the case for new buildings full stop.<\/p>\n

“It’s totally unradical, I’m sorry,” he said. “But it might be a breath of fresh air.”<\/p>\n

Despite the punchiness of its opening, De Graaf insists he does not intend the book to provoke, but to start a conversation.<\/p>\n

“I tend to speak my mind, pretty much in the hope that other people will start to speak their mind too,” he said. “This is not a provocation, this is not a doctrine. I would say it’s an invitation to candor.”<\/p>\n

“I’m not somebody that is necessarily out for a fight or a riot. I mean, I have, ultimately, a very, very consensual character; I’m Dutch.”<\/p>\n

\"OMA
De Graaf is one of seven partners at OMA. Photo by Adrienne Norman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given De Graaf’s status as a partner in a prolific international architecture studio founded by a famous man now in his eighties<\/a>, some of the early chatter around the book has accused its author of hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

In one instance, a prominent architecture commentator took to social media to compare it to Jamie Oliver writing a critique of celebrity chefs.<\/p>\n

But De Graaf, who says he anticipated such comments, is unbothered.<\/p>\n

“I’ve worked more than 30 years as an architect, so you can safely assume that I have an incredibly thick skin,” he said.<\/p>\n

“As a non-chef, probably the only book I’d ever read about master chefs would be Jamie Oliver mounting a critique of celebrity chefs, precisely because the contradiction intrigues and precisely because I would trust him to know what he was talking about.”<\/p>\n