Here, the reference to Mies van der Rohe’s Neuenationalgalerie in Berlin is freely reinterpreted and combined with the diverse program of the building. Cloud (1985-1991), imbued with outspoken but largely re-elaborated quotes to Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, and the Kunsthal in Rotterdam (1987-1992). In the same years, at least to architectures are relevant samples of Rem Koolhaas’s relation with modernity: the Villa dall’Ava in St. The masterplan for the neighbourhood of Euralille (1988-1991) and the Congresexpo (1991-1994), which forms part of it, are the first occasion for Rem Koolhaas for a three-dimensional, and large-scale, double check of his theories. The unrealized projects, submitted to three important competitions in the 1980s and the 1990s, stem directly from the cores of his theoretical investigations: the proposal for the Parc de la Villette in Paris (1982-1983) is an experimentation on the topic of congestion the design for the ville nouvelle of Melun-Sénart (1987) focuses on the potentials of the void, which in a sense is the latter’s counterpart the competition for the Très Grande Bibliothèque de France in Paris (1989) combines both themes within a single architectural volume. Rather, a sequence of thematic guidelines can be pinpointed, partially overlapping over time. However, an overview on his projects, including some unrealised proposals, shows a certain indifference for stylistic matters. Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Daniel Libeskind and Bernard Tschumi). The large-scale exhibition on Deconstructivist Architecture, curated by Philip Johnson and Mark Wigley at New York’s MoMa in 1988, identified Rem Koolhaas as one of the leaders of deconstructivism (alongside Peter Eisenman, Frank O.
In 2001, Junkspaceconfirms Rem Koolhaas’s qualities as a clear-minded interpreter of the most problematic aspects of contemporaneity, in this case the junk spaces, that he conceives as the inescapable side effects of design, as intended in the 20 th century. Rem Koolhaas is here suggesting an anti-ideological reading of the sprawl, liberated from the qualitative hierarchies inherited from the past. The essay on The Generic City stands out from the rest of the book. The writings and the projects of his first two decades of activities are collected in S, M, L, XL, the monumental anthology realised in 1995 with OMA and with the Dutch graphic designer Bruce Mau. “ Fuck the context” is possibly the most famous and controversial of Rem Koolhaas’s quotes. He acknowledges both for a project-oriented value: the former allows the coexistence of radically different programs the latter enhances a productive disconnection between the building’s shell and its interiors, but also between architecture and its context. Published in 1978, Delirious New York “learns” from the American metropolis and provides the author’s very first reflection on the topics of congestion and of “ bigness”. His publications have put in the spotlight several notions, as well as the related neologisms, which rapidly reframed the contemporary debate. His restless activity in terms of investigation and theoretical production is precisely what makes Rem Koolhaas stand out from other present-day star architects. In 1999, OMA is joined by the Architecture Media Organization (AMO), its ideally complementary division, focusing specifically on research. In 1975, together with Madelon Vriesendorp and with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis, he opens the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), whose headquarters moves to Rotterdam in 1986.
As opposed to West Berlin, which at the time was surviving as a fenced enclave within the German Democratic Republic, the sectors aligning between Rem Koolhaas’s walls are spaces of freedom and rampant hedonism, “exclusive” as they are isolated from the rest of the city, clearly declining at the time. Exodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture envisions to elevate two walls of infinite length in the very heart of London. His final project at the A.A., elaborated in 1972, is representative of his will to challenge the consolidated paradigms for the interpretation of architecture and the city. Born in Rotterdam in 1944, he studies at London’s Architectural Association from 1968, and later on at the Cornell University in New York. Starting from the 1980s, Rem Koolhaas rapidly establishes himself at a global scale as a pivot character of contemporary architecture and urbanism.
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