Rem Koolhaas#Project on the city

Remment Koolhaas was born on 17 November 1944 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, to Anton Koolhaas (1912–1992) and Selinde Pietertje Roosenburg (born 1920). His father was a novelist, critic, and screenwriter. His maternal grandfather, Dirk Roosenburg (1887–1962), was a modernist architect who worked for Hendrik Petrus Berlage, before opening his own practice. Rem Koolhaas has a brother, Thomas, and a sister, Annabel. His paternal cousin was the architect and urban planner Teun Koolhaas (1940–2007). The family lived consecutively in Rotterdam (until 1946), Amsterdam (1946–1952), Jakarta (1952–1955), and Amsterdam (from 1955).{{cite web

| last = Moor

| first = Wam de

| title = Koolhaas, Anthonie (1912–1992)

| work = Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland

| publisher = Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis

| date = 13 March 2008

| url = http://www.inghist.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/BWN/lemmata/bwn5/koolhaas

| access-date = 14 May 2008 |language=nl}}{{cite web|title=Anthonie Koolhaas |work=De Boekenweek |url=http://www.schenkt.nl/Biografieen/koolhaas.htm |access-date=14 May 2008 |language=nl |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201101236/http://www.schenkt.nl/Biografieen/koolhaas.htm |archive-date=1 December 2008 }}{{cite web

| last = Anker

| first = Eva van den

| title = Dirk Roosenburg

| work = Archipedia

| publisher = Architectenweb

| url = http://www.architectenweb.nl/aweb/archipedia/archipedia.asp?ID=789

| access-date = 14 May 2008 |language=nl}}

His father strongly supported the Indonesian cause for autonomy from the colonial Dutch in his writing. When the war of independence was won, he was invited over to run a cultural programme for three years and the family moved to Jakarta in 1952. "It was a very important age for me," Koolhaas recalls "and I really lived as an Asian."{{Cite news

|last=Adams

|first=Tim

|url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1803857,00.html

|title=Metropolis Now

|work=The Observer, Guardian Unlimited

|date=25 June 2006

|location=London}}

In 1969, Koolhaas co-wrote The White Slave, a Dutch film noir, and later wrote an unproduced script for American soft-porn king Russ Meyer.{{cite web

|last=Becker

|first=Lynn

|url=http://www.lynnbecker.com/repeat/OedipusRem/koolhaasbio.htm

|title=Oedipus Rem.

|work=Repeat: Writings on Architecture

|date=10 October 2007}}

He was a journalist in 1963 at age 19 for the Haagse Post{{cite web |url=https://stichtingconstant.nl/system/files/20070904_koolhaas_constant-architecturaltheory.eu_.pdf |title=Koolhaas, Constant and Dutch Culture in the 1960s |last=Lootsma |first=Bart |date=4 September 2007 |website=Architecturaltheory.eu }} before starting studies in architecture in 1968 at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, followed, in 1972, by further studies with Oswald Mathias Ungers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, followed by studies at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York City.File:Rem Koolhaas SCL.jpg model in 2005]]

Koolhaas first came to public and critical attention with OMA (The Office for Metropolitan Architecture), the office he founded in 1975 together with architects Elia Zenghelis, Zoe Zenghelis and (Koolhaas's wife) Madelon Vriesendorp in London. They were later joined by one of Koolhaas's students, Zaha Hadid – who would soon go on to achieve success in her own right. An early work which would mark their difference from the then dominant postmodern classicism of the late 1970s, was their contribution to the Venice Biennale of 1980, curated by Italian architect Paolo Portoghesi, titled "Presence of the Past". Each architect had to design a stage-like "frontage" to a Potemkin-type internal street; the façades by {{Interlanguage link|Costantino Dardi|it}}, Frank Gehry and OMA were the only ones that did not employ Post-Modern architecture motifs or historical references.

File:Union-europea segun rem-koolhaas.svg for the European Union, 2002.]]

Other early critically received (yet unbuilt) projects included the Parc de la Villette, Paris (1982) and the residence for the Prime Minister of Ireland (1979), as well as the Kunsthal in Rotterdam (1992). These schemes would attempt to put into practice many of the findings Koolhaas made in his book Delirious New York (1978),Koolhaas, Rem (1978) Delirious New York: A retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan, Academy Editions, London; republished, The Monacelli Press, 1994, {{ISBN|978-1-885254-00-9}} which was written while he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York, directed by Peter Eisenman.{{cite web|first=Valentina|last=Ciuffi|title=Rem Koolhaas is stating 'the end' of his career, says Peter Eisenman|date=9 June 2014|url=https://www.dezeen.com/2014/06/09/rem-koolhaas-at-the-end-of-career-says-peter-eisenman/|website=dezeen.com|access-date=7 August 2019}}

Koolhaas's book Delirious New York set the pace for his career. Koolhaas analyzes the "chance-like" nature of city life: "The City is an addictive machine from which there is no escape" "Rem Koolhaas...defined the city as a collection of 'red hot spots'."Klingmann, A (2007). Brandscapes: Architecture in the Experience Economy. MIT Press, {{ISBN|978-0-262-51503-0}}. (Anna Klingmann). As Koolhaas himself has acknowledged, this approach had already been evident in the Japanese Metabolist Movement in the 1960s and early 1970s.

A key aspect of architecture that Koolhaas interrogates is the "Program": with the rise of modernism in the 20th century the "Program" became the key theme of architectural design. The notion of the Program involves "an act to edit function and human activities" as the pretext of architectural design: epitomised in the maxim form follows function, first popularised by architect Louis Sullivan at the beginning of the 20th century. The notion was first questioned in Delirious New York, in his analysis of high-rise architecture in Manhattan. An early design method derived from such thinking was "cross-programming", introducing unexpected functions in room programmes, such as running tracks in skyscrapers. More recently, Koolhaas unsuccessfully proposed the inclusion of hospital units for the homeless into the Seattle Public Library project (2003).{{Cite web|url=http://www.archdaily.com/449282/happy-birthday-rem-koolhaas-2|title=Spotlight: Rem Koolhaas|date=17 November 2018|website=ArchDaily}}

Koolhaas' next publications were a by-product of his position as professor at Harvard University, in the Design school's "Project on the City"; firstly the 720-page Mutations,Koolhaas, Rem et al. (2001) Mutations, Arc en rêve centre d’architecture, Bordeaux, {{ISBN|978-84-95273-51-2}}. followed by The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping (2002)Koolhaas, Rem; Chung, Chuihua Judy; Inaba, Jeffrey and Leong, Sze Tsung (2002) The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping. Harvard Design School Project on the City 2, Taschen, New York, {{ISBN|978-3-8228-6047-2}} and The Great Leap Forward (2002).Koolhaas, Rem et al. (2002) The Great Leap Forward. Harvard Design School Project on the City, Taschen, New York, {{ISBN|978-3-8228-6048-9}}

All three books published student work analysing what others would regard as "non-cities", sprawling conglomerates such as Lagos in Nigeria, west Africa, which the authors argue are highly functional despite a lack of infrastructure. The authors also examine the influence of shopping habits and the recent rapid growth of cities in China. Critics of the books have criticised Koolhaas for being cynical,La Cecla, Franco (2020) "Against Urbanism", PM Press, {{ISBN|978-1-62963-235-3}} – as if Western capitalism and globalization demolish all cultural identity – highlighted in the notion expounded in the books that "In the end, there will be little else for us to do but shop". Perhaps such caustic cynicism can be read as a "realism" about the transformation of cultural life, where airports and even museums (due to finance problems) rely just as much on operating gift shops. It does, however, demonstrate one of the architect's characteristic devices for deflecting criticism: attack the client or subject of study after completing the work.

When it comes to transforming these observations into practice, Koolhaas mobilizes what he regards as the omnipotent forces of urbanism into unique design forms and connections organised along the lines of present-day society. Koolhaas continuously incorporates his observations of the contemporary city within his design activities: calling such a condition the ‘culture of congestion’. Again, 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.

In 2003, Content, a 544-page magazine-style book designed by &&& Creative and published by Koolhaas, gives an overview of the last decade of OMA projectsKoolhaas, Rem (2003) Content, Taschen, New York, {{ISBN|978-3-8228-3070-3}} including his designs for the Prada shops, the Seattle Public Library, a plan to save Cambridge from Harvard by rechanneling the Charles River, Lagos' future as Earth's third-biggest city, as well as interviews with Martha Stewart and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.

In 2005, Rem Koolhaas co-founded Volume Magazine together with Mark Wigley and Ole Bouman. Volume Magazine – the collaborative project by Archis (Amsterdam), AMO and C-lab (Columbia University NY) – is a dynamic experimental think tank devoted to the process of spatial and cultural reflexivity. It goes beyond architecture's definition of ‘making buildings’ and reaches out for global views on architecture and design, broader attitudes to social structures, and creating environments to live in. The magazine stands for a journalism which detects and anticipates, is proactive and even pre-emptive – a journalism which uncovers potentialities, rather than covering done deals.

In the late nineties he worked on the design for the new headquarters for Universal.{{cite web |title=Finding aid for the OMA Universal Studios project records |url=https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/archives/219994/oma-universal-studios-project-records |website=Canadian Centre for Architecture |access-date=9 April 2020}}

Indeed, online marketing and propaganda has been a hallmark of OMA's rise in the current century. It has also led to pointed criticism, such as the critique by New York Magazine critic Justin Davidson, who found the 2020 Guggenheim exhibition Countryside, the Future "mildly amusing if it weren’t such terrible waste — of attention, of gallery square footage, of resources, talent, and expertise. Bored with being an architect and building things, Koolhaas lets his fingertips graze important topics, genuine insights, and actual lives. He treats them all as ironic bric-a-brac, meaningless souvenirs of his meanderings through a fragile world. How frustrating that the Guggenheim couldn’t force a little more intellectual rigor on this romp."Justin Davidson, ""Farm Livin' Is the Life for Me, Ja? Rem Koolhaas tries out country life," New York Magazine, 24 February 2020, accessed online.

File:PDRM0102.JPG, Beverly Hills, California]]

With his Prada projects, Koolhaas ventured into providing architecture for 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, ostensibly displaying select wares, but mainly the shoppers themselves. The notion of selling a brand rather than marketing clothes was further emphasised in the Prada store on Broadway in Manhattan, New York, which had previously been owned by the Guggenheim: the museum signs were not removed during the outfitting of the new store, as if emphasizing the premises as a cultural institution.Anette Baldauf (2004) "Branded", in Learning from Calvin Klein, Umbau 21. The Broadway Prada store opened in December 2001, cost €32 million to build, and has 2,300 square meters of retail space.

File:Beijingskyscraperpic9.jpg, Beijing, China]]

Probably the most costly and celebrated OMA projects of the new century were the massive Central China Television Headquarters Building in Beijing, China, and the new building for the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

In his design for the new CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2009), Koolhaas did not opt for the stereotypical skyscraper, often used to symbolise and landmark such government enterprises; he patented a "horizontal skyscraper" in the U.S. The building, popularly called "The Big Pants" by Beijing residents, was designed as a series of volumes which attempt to tie together the numerous departments onto the nebulous site, but also introduce routes (again, the concept of cross-programming) for the general public through the site, allowing them some degree of access to the production procedure. An unfortunate incident that highlighted the folly of the circulation scheme (no effective fire egress for people on the upper floors), was the construction fire that nearly destroyed the building and a nearby hotel in 2009.David Flumenbaum, ""CCTV Headquarters Fire: Rem Koolhaas Building Survives Blaze," Huffington Post, 12 March 2009; updated 6 December 2017.

In February 2020, his exhibition Countryside, The Future opened at the Guggenheim in New York City.{{Cite web |title=Countryside, The Future |url=https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/countryside |access-date=2022-06-15 |website=The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation |language=en-US}} The exhibition closed within a month, after New York City closed all its major art institutions in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Koolhaas was previously married to Madelon Vriesendorp, an artist who is the mother of his two children, Charlie, a photographer, and Tomas, a filmmaker.{{cite news|last=Lubow|first=Arthur|title=Rem Koolhaas Is Not a Starchitect|url=http://www.wmagazine.com/culture/art-and-design/2014/06/rem-koolhaas-venice-architecture-biennale/photos/|access-date=13 October 2015|newspaper=The W Magazine|date=9 June 2014|archive-date=12 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161212051601/http://www.wmagazine.com/culture/art-and-design/2014/06/rem-koolhaas-venice-architecture-biennale/photos/|url-status=dead}} Koolhaas divorced Vriesendorp in 2012.{{Cite web|url=https://www.wmagazine.com/story/rem-koolhaas-venice-architecture-biennale|title=Rem Koolhaas Is Not a Starchitect|last=Lubow|first=Arthur|website=W Magazine|date=9 June 2014 |language=en|access-date=20 December 2019|quote=Koolhaas and Blaisse have been together since 1986—not living together, she notes, “but having a life together.” Three years ago, they began sharing an apartment. Two years later, he obtained a divorce from Madelon Vriesendorp, an artist who is the mother of his two children.}} He has known his current partner Petra Blaisse, an interior and landscape designer, since 1986.

• Villa dall’Ava,[http://www.whatwedoissecret.org/madebyblog/2007/01/villa-dallava/ VILLA DALL’AVA]. WhatWeDoIsSecret.org (18 January 2007). Retrieved on 25 February 2015. (Saint-Cloud, 1991)
• Nexus World Housing (Fukuoka, 1991)
• Kunsthal (Rotterdam, 1992)
• Euralille (Lille, 1994)
• Educatorium (Utrecht, 1995)
• Maison à Bordeaux (Bordeaux, 1998)[http://storiesofhouses.blogspot.com/#111875876221998436 Stories Of Houses]. Storiesofhouses.blogspot.com (24 February 2004). Retrieved on 20 March 2014.
• Embassy of the Netherlands (Berlin, 2003)
• McCormick Tribune Campus Center (Chicago, 2003)
• Seoul National University Museum of Art (Seoul, 2005) [http://www.snumoa.org/ snumoa.org]. snumoa.org. Retrieved on 20 March 2014.
• Seattle Central Library (Seattle, 2005)
• Casa da Música (Porto, 2005)
• Dee and Charles Wyly Theater (Dallas, 2009)
• CCTV Headquarters, (Beijing, 2012)
• De Rotterdam (Rotterdam, 2013)
• Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow, 2014)
• Qatar National Library (Doha, 2017)
• Taipei Performing Arts Center (Taipei, 2022)

• Project Japan. Metabolism Talks... (2011) (with Hans Ulrich Obrist){{cite web

| title = Project Japan. Metabolism Talks...

| publisher = Taschen

| url = http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/architecture/all/06769/facts.project_japan_metabolism_talks.htm

| access-date = 4 April 2012 }} {{ISBN|978-3-8365-2508-4}}

• Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan (1978){{cite web

| title = Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto of Manhattan

| publisher = Office for Metropolitan Architecture

| url = http://www.oma.eu/publications/delirious-new-york

| access-date = 18 May 2008 }} {{ISBN|978-1-885254-00-9}}

• S,M,L,XL (1995){{cite web

|title = SMLXL

|publisher = Office for Metropolitan Architecture

|url = http://www.oma.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=2

|access-date = 18 May 2008

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080610152121/http://www.oma.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=2

|archive-date = 10 June 2008

|df = dmy-all

}} {{ISBN|978-1-885254-86-3}}

• Serpentine Gallery: 24 Hour Interview Marathon'' (2007){{cite web

| title = Serpentine Gallery: 24 Hour Interview Marathon

| publisher = Trolley Books

| url = http://trolleybooks.com/bookSingle.php?bookId=69

| access-date = 18 May 2008

| archive-date = 4 March 2016

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031848/http://trolleybooks.com/bookSingle.php?bookId=69

| url-status = dead

}} {{ISBN|978-1-904563-69-3}}

• Living Vivre Leben (1998){{cite web

|title = Living Vivre Leben

|publisher = Office for Metropolitan Architecture

|url = http://www.oma.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=56&Itemid=2

|access-date = 18 May 2008

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080610152204/http://www.oma.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=56&Itemid=2

|archive-date = 10 June 2008

|df = dmy-all

}}

• Content (2004){{cite web

| title = Content

| publisher = Office for Metropolitan Architecture

| url = http://www.oma.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=2

| access-date = 18 May 2008 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080409144958/http://www.oma.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=2 |archive-date = 9 April 2008}} {{ISBN|978-3-8228-3070-3}}

• Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2006; Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, Germany 2008 {{ISBN|978-3-86560-393-7}}

File:Villa dall'Ava.jpg|Villa dall'Ava, Paris, France, OMA

File:Kunsthal Rotterdam.JPG|Kunsthal, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, OMA

File:Uithof, 3584 Utrecht, Netherlands - panoramio (19).jpg|Educatorium, Utrecht, The Netherlands, OMA

File:MAISON À BORDEAUX.jpg|Maison à Bordeaux, France, OMA

File:Be Dutch Embassy 01.JPG|Embassy of the Netherlands, Berlin, Germany, OMA

File:McCormick Tribune Campus Center.jpg|McCormick Tribune Campus Center, Chicago, United States, OMA

File:SCL2.JPG|Seattle Central Library, Seattle, United States, OMA

File:Casa da musica.JPG|Casa da Música, Porto, Portugal, OMA

File:Serpentine Gallery pavilion 2006 by Koolhaas and Balmond - geograph.org.uk - 214757.jpg|Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, London, UK, OMA

File:Distant view of the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre (edited).jpg|Dee and Charles Wyly Theater, Dallas, US, OMA

File:De Rotterdam, September 2019 - 01.jpg|De Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, OMA

• Contemporary architecture
• World Architecture Survey
• List of architects
• Koolhaas Houselife

{{reflist}}

{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooks=no|about=yes|wikititle=Rem Koolhaas}}

{{Wikiquote}}

{{Commons category|Rem Koolhaas}}

• [http://www.oma.eu/ Office for Metropolitan Architecture]
• [https://www.facebook.com/OMA.AMO OMA official Facebook page] (updated daily)
• [http://www.vimeo.com/user3599775 OMA official Vimeo channel]
• [http://www.archello.com/en/company/oma OMA portfolio on Archello.com]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20030218195753/http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/people/faculty/koolhaas/ Rem Koolhaas] at Harvard University
• {{IMDb name|0465549|Rem Koolhaas}}
• [https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/search/details/library/publication/195341 Urgency 2007: Rem Koolhaas and Peter Eisenman lectures], Canadian Centre for Architecture, 8 June 2007
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA2HDn-igFI Rem Koolhaas in conversation with Mirko Zardini and Giovanna Borasi], Rotterdam, 26 August 2015, for the exhibition [https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/events/3538/the-other-architect The Other Architect], Canadian Centre for Architecture
• [http://klaustoon.wordpress.com/2009/04/23/on-starchitecture.html On Starchitecture]
• [http://klaustoon.wordpress.com/2009/04/09/koolhaas-at-harvard-ecological-urbanism-i.html Koolhaas at Harvard's Ecological Urbanism]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110707203222/http://www.babelgum.com/6002699/rem-koolhaas-kind-architect-full-film.html Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect (2008 Feature Documentary)]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oelsf4pdZg Rem Koolhaas lecture "Russia for Beginners" at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art: September 15th, 2014]
• [https://www.emptycanon.org/architect/2 Rem Koolhaas on Empty Canon]

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Category:1944 births

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