Rem Koolhaas

Rem Koolhaas (born november 17 1944 in Rotterdam, Netherlands) is a Dutch architect, former journalist and screenwriter who studied architecture at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. He is the principal of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, or OMA, and of its research-oriented counterpart AMO. He is also "Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design" at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design.

Perhaps better known for his books than his buildings, he has authored several seminal works in architectural theory, including Delirious New York, and S,M,L,XL, a collaboration with the graphic designer Bruce Mau published in 1995. Koolhaas' work emphatically embraces the contradictions of a discipline that struggles to maintain its humanist ideals of material honesty, the human scale and carefully crafted meaning in a rapidly globalising world that espouses material economy, machine scale and random meaning. In 2003 content, a cheap, magazine-style book was published, giving an overview of the last decade of OMA projects, endeavours and new trends and global developments. Using a canny direction of observation and diagram, Koolhaas mobilizes the omnipotent forces of urbanism into unprecedented forms and connections organised along the lines of present day society. Shopping is examined for intellectual comfort whilst the unregulated taste and densification of Chinese cities is analysed according to "performance", a criterion involving variables with debatable credibility - density, newness, shape, size, money etc. Through his ruthlessly raw approach, Koolhaas hopes to extract the architect from the anxiety of a dead profession and resurrect a contemporary sublime however fleeting it may be.

Prizes

2004 RIBA Gold Medal
2003 awarded the Praemium Imperiale
2000 Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate (see complete list of winners, below}

Focus - Program

In the late 20th century scene of architecture "Program" became the key theme of architectural design. The notion of "Program" was invented by the Rem Koolhaas during the late 20th century, especially pronounced in the book "Delirious New York". The notion is the equivalent of "function", the key notion of the early 20th century modern architecture movements. The notion of Program involves "Act to edit function and human activities" as the pretext of architectural design. The notion was first applied as the key to analyze existing high-rise architecture in the Manhattan island. Later the notion was extended to be used as the key notion to design architectural projects.

The attempt to create alternative program in order to bring in innovation to the architectural design works of Rem Koolhaas/OMA, Architecture of OMA often takes rhetoric that reveals the contradiction/s that are contained in the existing building organization. The act to remodel this existing building organization is called 'programming' in the work of Rem Koolhaas/OMA.

Focus - Congestion

Starting his walk of fame as an architect with his book on Manhattan Island and her architectural history, Koolhaas continuously feature his observation on the contemporary city to his activities. Koolhaas calls such condition as the ‘culture of congestion’. Besides ‘Delirious New York’, Koolhaas produces series of articles concerning contemporary cities. The articles concern city forming in the process of current mode of “modernization” of a capital. Such articles concern: Singapore; Lagos; Tokyo. Koolhaas and his studios have produced researches: Great Leap Forward (on recent Chinese cities), Shopping (on recent mode of city forming). In the work of his architectural design office OMA the mode of city forming is seen as the reference plane to weigh up the programming of activities and architecture. Referring to his inclination to the culture of congestion, the architectural projects of Rem Koolhaas/OMA often proposes to mix divers use within one architectural project with the attempt to create a congestion. The tendency is prominent even in the very small-scale programmatic intervention. For example Koolhaas proposed to build in a hospital units for the homeless into the Seattle public Library project (2003).

The attempt to parallel city context and architectural projects is not unique. Historically many other architects have been exploiting the possibility to profit form such thinking. The uniqueness of Rem Koolhaas/OMA is to propose such combination to introduce unforeseen ‘eventful’ animation to the project. This is a criticism to the mid 20th century architecture that consists of homogeneous program that left public building in ‘sleep’ condition, failing to function as the planner has intended to.

Quotes

Reference to the article 'Generic city', a critic to current mode of urbanization: "People can inhabit anything. And they can be miserable in anything and ecstatic in anything. More and more I think that architecture has nothing to do with it. Of course, that's both liberating and alarming. But the generic city, the general urban condition, is happening everywhere, and just the fact that it occurs in such enormous quantities must mean that it's habitable. Architecture can't do anything that the culture doesn't. We all complain that we are confronted by urban environments that are completely similar. We say we want to create beauty, identity, quality, singularity. And yet, maybe in truth these cities that we have are desired. Maybe their very characterlessness provides the best context for living." —interview in Wired Magazine 4.07, July 1996 From Bauhaus to Koolhaas

Asked if there is a certain contribution he aspires to make: "It's very simple and it has nothing to do with identifiable goals. It is to keep thinking about what architecture can be, in whatever form. That is an answer, isn't it? I think that S,M,L,XL has one beautiful ambiguity: it used the past to build a future and is very adamant about giving notice that this is not the end. That's how it felt to me, anyway. That is in itself evidence of a kind of discomfort with achievement measured in terms of identifiable entities, and an announcement that continuity of thinking in whatever form, around whatever subject, is the real ambition." —interview in Index Magazine, 2000Rem Koolhaas, 2000

List of projects

Koolhaas's projects include:

Copenhagen Brewery Site competition winner, for a new Danish Architecture CenterCopenhagen - Brewery Site Competition winner: Rem Koolhaas OMA
Milstein Hall, Cornell, currently in the planning phase
Casa da Música (2001–2005), Porto, Portugal
Seattle Central Library (2004)
CCTV HQ, Beijing (Construction Commencing 2004)
Retail design for Prada stores (New York 2003, Los Angeles 2004)
McCormick Tribune Campus Center, (IIT Chicago, Illinois, 1997-2003)
Netherlands Embassy (Berlin, 2003)
Guggenheim Museum, (Las Vegas, 2002)
Educatorium, (Utrecht, 1993–1997)
Kunsthal, (Rotterdam, 1993)
Euralille (Lille, 1988)
Netherlands Dance Theater (The Hague, 1988)
"Maison à Bordeaux" (France)
Nexus Housing (Fukuoka, Japan)

European Flag Proposal

Following the signing of Treaties of Nice in May 2001, which made Brussels the official capital of Europe, the then President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi and the Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt invited Koolhaas to discuss the necessities and requirements of a European capital.

During these talks and as an impetus for further discussion, Koolhaas and his think-tank AMO – an independent part of OMA – suggested the development of a visual language. This idea inspired a series of drawings and drafts, including the "Barcode". The barcode seeks to unite the flags of the EU member countries into a single, colourful symbol.

In the current European flag, there is a fixed number of stars. In the barcode however, new Member States of the EU can be added without space constraints. Originally, the barcode displayed 15 EU countries. In 2004, the symbol was adapted to include the ten new Member States.

Since the time of the first drafts of the barcode it has never been officially used by commercial or political institutions. During the Austrian EU Presidency 2006 it was officially used for the first time. The logo has already been used for the EU information campaign which will also be continued during the Austrian EU Presidency. There was initially some uproar caused, as the stripes of the flag of Estonia were displayed incorrectly.

Architecture & Fashion

With his Prada projects, Koolhaas has ventured into the realms of infusing architecture with the fleeting world of fashion and with celebrity-studded cachet: not unlike Garnier's Opera, the central space of Koolhaas' Beverly Hills Prada store is occupied by a massive central staircase, ostenibly displaying select wares, but mainly the shoppers themselves. At the opening party for the flagship store, Koolhaas may not have been as sought after by the Hollywood press corps as Paris Hilton or Nicole Richie, but was easily recognized by the cognoscenti.

References

External links

Dutch architects | Pritzker Prize winners | Deconstructivism | 1944 births | Living people

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