“Age is correlated with an appetite for risk,” Koolhaas said. ENLARGE SLIDESHOW1/44Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit 2014 new establishmen

Architect Rem Koolhaas takes issue with recent innovations focused on personalizing everything about people’s home environment.

“I’m critical of the relentless profit motive that seems to invade every one of these new inventions,” he said on stage at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit with Nest C.E.OTony Fadell. Koolhaas's views stood in contrast to Fadell’s company, which was bought by Google earlier this year for $3 billion, and makes thermostats that automatically personalize to match the resident’s behavior.

Fadell defended his company’s vision, while acknowledging the importance of inventions that promote the public good. “There’s a gentle balance here,” he said. “But it does start selfishly with the homeowner.”

“There’s going to be a blend,” Fadell said when Vanity Fair contributing editor Paul Goldberger asked about a potential collaboration with Koolhaas on a home of the future. Fadell said the goal should be to hide the technology, not to make it more conspicuous.

The two also discussed differing attitudes toward design and architecture around the world. Koolhaas pointed out that decision-makers in countries like China tend to be younger, and therefore are more willing to take on newer and more adventurous aesthetics.

“My final conclusion, and this surprised me, is that the thing that matters most when it comes to designing buildings around the world is the age of the decision maker,” said Koolhaus, who is a professor at Harvard. “In China, the decision maker is 35, in Europe, the decision maker is 55. In America, the decision maker is a trustee, so they might be older.”

“Age is correlated with an appetite for risk,” Koolhaas said.