Rem Koolhaas

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(b. Netherlands circa 1944)

"Rem Koolhaas and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA)"

"In Europe, Koolhaas has completed a number of projects that have won high praise from critics, including a residence in Bordeaux, France; the Educatorium, a multifunction building for Utrecht University in the Netherlands; and the master plan and Grand Palais for Lille, France which is his largest realized urban planning project."

— Rem Koolhaas Wins Pritzker Prize 2000, ArchitectureWeek, June 7, 2000 (includes project photos)

A Dutch graduate of the AA School in London, Rem Koolhas is both a rhetorical architect and a creator of real physical buildings. He has been considered a noted Deconstructivist at least since the major MOMA exhibition in New York during 1987 or 1988, although Koolhaas tends perhaps toward the more humanist, less absolute branch of the Deconstructivist school.

— Great Buildings Online

Mr. Koolhaas believes in the idea of social progress. The pace of global change leaves him unfazed and optimistic. His work eagerly reforges the broken link between technology and progress. He revels in the unexpected rather than passively anticipating agony. Perhaps as a Dutchman, imprinted with his country's role as an international trading center, he has fewer problems with global change than might someone of another nationality. The Dutch, a nation of traders, have not surprisingly spawned an architect whose work responds to the silent, nanosecond transnational flows of money and ideas.

Mr. Koolhaas also notes the Dutch pride in the national trait of economy and thrift. He actually likes "the integration of the notion of cheapness to create sublime conditions" and is philosophical about "the client as chaos." "Chaos simply happens. You cannot aspire to chaos; you can only be an instrument of it."

— from "Rem Koolhaas, Post-Nationalist Architect", The New York Times, September 11, 1994.

Creator's Words

"Architects, for the first time in several decades, are being solicited for their power to physically articulate new visions," says Mr. Koolhaas, in person charming, unassuming, hyperarticulate. "Once again one feels a belief in the propagandistic nature of architecture."

— Rem Koolhaas, quoted in "Rem Koolhaas, Post-Nationalist Architect", The New York Times, September 11, 1994.

Details

Recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, 2000 (to be formally awarded May 29, 2000).

Rem Koolhaas
Office for Metropolitan Architecture
Heer Bokelweg 149
3032 AD Rotterdam
The Netherlands
vox +31 (0)10 24 38 200
fax +31 (0)10 24 38 202
email: office@oma.nl, pr@oma.nl

"Seattle Public Library - Detailing the Skin", by Steve DelFraino, LMN Architects, with Christine Killory and René Davids, ArchitectureWeek No. 352, 2007.1003, pB1.1.

"Engineering Koolhaas", by Arup, ArchitectureWeek No. 270, 2006.0111, pT1.1.

"Seattle Public Library", by Robert Such, ArchitectureWeek No. 236, 2005.0420, pD1.1.

"Totally Tubular Koolhaas", by Michael J. Crosbie, ArchitectureWeek No. 172, 2003.1119, pD1.1.

"Rem Koolhaas Praemium Imperiale", by ArchitectureWeek, ArchitectureWeek No. 157, 2003.0806, pN1.1.

"Rem Koolhaas wins Pritzker Prize", by ArchitectureWeek, ArchitectureWeek No. 4, 2000.0607, pN4.1

Rem Koolhaas. Oma Rem Koolhaas. Postcards edition, Birkhauser (Architectural), October 1998. ISBN 3764359099. — Available at Amazon.com

Rem Koolhaas. Delirious New York : A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. Monacelli Press, January 1995. ISBN 1885254008. — Available at Amazon.com

Rem Koolhaas, Bernard Colenbrander, Michelle Provoost. Dutchtown: A City Center Design by OMA/Rem. NAi Publishers/Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, March 2000. ISBN 9056621408. — Available at Amazon.com

Jacques Lucan, Rem Koolhaas. Oma Rem Koolhaas Living, Vivre, Leben. Birkhauser (Architectural), March 1999. ISBN 3764356383. — Available at Amazon.com

Rem Koolhaas, Sanford Kwinter (Editor), Sze Tsung Leong (Illustrator). Rem Koolhaas Conversations With Students : Conversations With Students (Architecture at Rice, 30). Princeton Architectural Press, February 1996. ISBN 1885232020. — Available at Amazon.com

Rem Koolhaas, Bruce Mau. S,M,L,XL. Penguin USA, June 1998. ISBN 1885254865. — (Publisher Out of Stock, as of 2000.0418)

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Search the RIBA architecture library catalog for more references on Rem Koolhaas
 

Office for Metropolitan Architecture — Rem Koolhaas official firm web site

Rem Koolhaas wins Pritzker Prize — Article in ArchitectureWeek No. 4, 2000.0607

CNN on Rem Koolhaas Pritzker Prize — Good coverage, and a great little slide show!

Rem Koolhaas — At "Architects in Cyperspace"

Rem Koolhaas at Archiplanet — Find, add, and edit info at the all-buildings collaboration

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