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Libraries for All www.spl.org/lfa/index.html Capital Program Office: capital.program@spl.org 1000 Fourth Ave. Seattle, WA 98104 (206) 386-4624 © 1999-2001 Seattle Public Library		REM KOOLHAAS Return to More about O.M.A. Source: Office for Metropolitan Architecture. June 1999. Rem Koolhaas, born in Rotterdam (1944), lived from 1952 until 1956 in Indonesia, and later in Amsterdam. After beginning his career as a journalist with the Haagse Post and as a scriptwriter in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, he attended the Architectural Association School in London from 1968 until 1973. Here he produced the Berlin Wall as Architecture (1970) and -together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp- Exodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture (1972). In 1972 he received a Harkness Fellowship for research in the United States. He studied with O.M. Ungers at Cornell University from 1972-1973, and then became visiting Fellow at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York. While in New York, Rem Koolhaas wrote Delirious New York, a retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan which was published in 1978 and immediately heralded as a classic text on modern architecture and society. In 1975, Rem Koolhaas founded, with Madelon Vriesendorp, Elia and Zoe Zenghelis, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in London, with the stated ambition to address contemporary society and to build contemporary architecture. In 1978, a prize for the Netherlands House of Parliament competition in The Hague was the basis to start an office in Rotterdam. From 1980 on Rem Koolhaas and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture have been intensely involved in building and urban planning projects. Realised projects include the Netherlands Dance Theatre in The Hague; Nexus Housing in Fukuoka, Japan; the Kunsthal in Rotterdam; the master plan for Euralille and the Lille Grand Palais in Lille, France; several residential projects include the Dutch House in the Netherlands and the Villa dall' Ava in Paris. More recently OMA finished the Educatorium, a lecture hall for the University of Utrecht and the Maison a Bordeaux, hailed by Times magazine as best design of 1998. Current projects include a commission for a master plan and two buildings for the Samsung Corporation Centre for Social Studies and Museum of Korean Art and the Seoul National University Museum in Korea; a master plan for Universal Studios in Los Angeles; a master plan for the City Centre of Almere, Netherlands, the master plan for the Hanoi New Town in Vietnam; the Netherlands Embassy in Berlin a master plan for the Song Do New Town for Inchon, Korea and the new McCormick Tribune Campus Centre for the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. In 1995, Rem Koolhaas published SMLXL together with graphic designer Bruce Mau, a book that documents the work of OMA and Koolhaas' individual interest in contemporary society and building. SMLXL was hailed as "book of the century" by Blueprint Magazine, and is now in its third printing. Since 1995 Mr. Koolhaas has been professor at Harvard University, where he is leading a series of research projects for the "Harvard Project in the City", a student-based research group which he founded at Harvard to study different issues affecting the urban condition. Recent projects include a study of five cities in the Pearl River Delta in China, and "Shopping", an analysis of the role of retail consumption in the contemporary city. Rem Koolhaas and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture have been the subject of numerous publications and monographs and several documentary films. The work of the office has been exhibited internationally, including retrospectives such as "the first decade" in the museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam in 1989 and "Rem Koolhaas and the Place of Public Architecture" in the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1995. Last modified: 11 October 1999

Libraries for All Index Library Home Page

Libraries for All
www.spl.org/lfa/index.html
Capital Program Office:
capital.program@spl.org
1000 Fourth Ave.
Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 386-4624

REM KOOLHAAS

Return to More about O.M.A.

Source: Office for Metropolitan Architecture. June 1999.

Rem Koolhaas, born in Rotterdam (1944), lived from 1952 until 1956 in Indonesia, and later in Amsterdam. After beginning his career as a journalist with the Haagse Post and as a scriptwriter in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, he attended the Architectural Association School in London from 1968 until 1973. Here he produced the Berlin Wall as Architecture (1970) and -together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp- Exodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture (1972).

R. Koolhaas, © Sanne Peper Fotografie In 1972 he received a Harkness Fellowship for research in the United States. He studied with O.M. Ungers at Cornell University from 1972-1973, and then became visiting Fellow at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York. While in New York, Rem Koolhaas wrote Delirious New York, a retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan which was published in 1978 and immediately heralded as a classic text on modern architecture and society.

In 1975, Rem Koolhaas founded, with Madelon Vriesendorp, Elia and Zoe Zenghelis, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in London, with the stated ambition to address contemporary society and to build contemporary architecture. In 1978, a prize for the Netherlands House of Parliament competition in The Hague was the basis to start an office in Rotterdam.

From 1980 on Rem Koolhaas and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture have been intensely involved in building and urban planning projects. Realised projects include the Netherlands Dance Theatre in The Hague; Nexus Housing in Fukuoka, Japan; the Kunsthal in Rotterdam; the master plan for Euralille and the Lille Grand Palais in Lille, France; several residential projects include the Dutch House in the Netherlands and the Villa dall' Ava in Paris. More recently OMA finished the Educatorium, a lecture hall for the University of Utrecht and the Maison a Bordeaux, hailed by Times magazine as best design of 1998.

Current projects include a commission for a master plan and two buildings for the Samsung Corporation Centre for Social Studies and Museum of Korean Art and the Seoul National University Museum in Korea; a master plan for Universal Studios in Los Angeles; a master plan for the City Centre of Almere, Netherlands, the master plan for the Hanoi New Town in Vietnam; the Netherlands Embassy in Berlin a master plan for the Song Do New Town for Inchon, Korea and the new McCormick Tribune Campus Centre for the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

In 1995, Rem Koolhaas published SMLXL together with graphic designer Bruce Mau, a book that documents the work of OMA and Koolhaas' individual interest in contemporary society and building. SMLXL was hailed as "book of the century" by Blueprint Magazine, and is now in its third printing.

Since 1995 Mr. Koolhaas has been professor at Harvard University, where he is leading a series of research projects for the "Harvard Project in the City", a student-based research group which he founded at Harvard to study different issues affecting the urban condition. Recent projects include a study of five cities in the Pearl River Delta in China, and "Shopping", an analysis of the role of retail consumption in the contemporary city.

Rem Koolhaas and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture have been the subject of numerous publications and monographs and several documentary films. The work of the office has been exhibited internationally, including retrospectives such as "the first decade" in the museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam in 1989 and "Rem Koolhaas and the Place of Public Architecture" in the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1995.

Last modified: 11 October 1999