Rem Koolhaas

62
Rem Koolhaas bigraphy, stories - Dutch architect

Rem Koolhaas : biography

17 November 1944 –

Remment Lucas "Rem" Koolhaas ( born ) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Koolhaas studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Koolhaas is the founding partner of OMA, and of its research-oriented counterpart AMO, currently based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. In 2005 he co-founded Volume Magazine together with Mark Wigley and Ole Bouman.

In 2000 Rem Koolhaas won the Pritzker Prize. In 2008 Time put him in their top 100 of The World’s Most Influential People.

Quotes

  • Noting that architecture can no longer keep up with the world: "The areas of consensus shift unbelievably fast; the bubbles of certainty are constantly exploding. Any architectural project we do takes at least four or five years, so increasingly there is a discrepancy between the acceleration of culture and the continuing slowness of architecture." —interview in Iconey,.
  • 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 4.07, July 1996
  • 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 with Jennifer Sigler in Index Magazine, 2000

Awards

  • Pritzker Prize (2000)
  • Chevalier de Légion d’honneur (2001)
  • Praemium Imperiale (2003)
  • Royal Gold Medal (2004)
  • Doctor honoris causa by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (2007)
  • Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale of Architecture for lifetime achievement (2010)

Selected projects

  • Euralille masterplan and Lille Grand Palais (Lille, 1988)
  • Netherlands Dance Theater (The Hague, 1988)
  • Villa dall’Ava,http://whatwedoissecret.alabonfire.com/2007/01/villa-dallava/ (Saint-Cloud, 1991)
  • Nexus Housing (Fukuoka, 1991)
  • Kunsthal (Rotterdam, 1993)
  • Educatorium (Utrecht, 1993–1997)
  • http://storiesofhouses.blogspot.com/#111875876221998436 (Bordeaux, 1998)
  • Second Stage Theatre (New York City, 1999)
  • Guggenheim Hermitage Museum (Las Vegas, 1980, 2002?)
  • McCormick Tribune Campus Center, IIT (Chicago, 1997–2003)
  • Netherlands Embassy Berlin (2003)
  • Retail design for Prada stores (New York: 2003, Los Angeles: 2004)
  • Seattle Central Library (Seattle, 2004)
  • The Children’s Centre, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art (Seoul, 2004)
  • Casa da Música (Porto, 2001–2005)
  • Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, (London, 2006)
  • Shenzhen Stock Exchange, (Shenzhen, 2006)
  • Córdoba International Congress Center (Centro de Congresos de Córdoba) – Palacio del Sur), Córdoba, Spain
  • Seoul National University Museum of Art (Seoul, 2003–2005)
  • Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, (Dallas, Texas, 2004–2009)
  • Milstein Hall, (Cornell, 2006–2009)
  • CCTV HQ (Beijing, 2004–2009)
  • Riga Port City, (Riga, 2009)
  • 23 East 22nd Street, (New York City, 2008–2010)
  • Bryghusprojektet, (Copenhagen, 2008–2010)
  • Torre Bicentenario (Bicentennial Tower), (Mexico City, 2007, unbuilt)
  • New Court, St. Swithin’s Lane (London, 2010)
  • De Rotterdam, (Rotterdam, 2009–2013)
  • Taipei Performing Arts Centre, (Taipei, 2012-2015)
  • Marina Abramović Community Centre Obod Cetinje – MACCOC, (Cetinje, 2012 – ?)