CONTEMPORARY WORLD

ARCHETICTURE

Report: Rem Koolhaas

Instructor: Dr. Khaled Adham
Students I.D
Rabih Mohamad Tahouf 201250697
Khaled Aref Reza 201250296
Ashfakur Rahman 201250439
 Rem Koolhaas

Remment Lucas "Rem" Koolhaas is a Dutch architect, an architectural theorist, an

urbanist and a professor in the Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the
Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Rem Koolhaas heads the work and
is the founding partner of OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture), and of its
research-oriented counterpart AMO based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He is
considered to be one of the most controversial and influential Architects of our time.
He has the tendency to shake up and overhaul well established conventions,
expectations and common architectural ideas. Moreover, he is commonly known to
surprise and shock people all over the world with his conceptual artistic ideas, which
adapts to any kind of change that the world is currently experiencing. The theme of
his urban work - is of big cities which are open to any extremes and any kind of
human experiences. He is seen quoting: “We are surrounded by crisis mongers who
see the city in terms of decline. I kind of automatically embrace the change. Then I try
to find ways in which change can be mobilized to strengthen the original identity.” In
this report, we are going to look over and discuss some of his buildings in three
distinct regions; China, Europe and U.S.A. Through these buildings some of
Koolhaas’ ideas and beliefs will be presented and evidenced.

China has been seeing

considerable economical and
metropolitan growth. As a result,
this country has become the new
destination for most Architects,
including Rem Koolhaas. One of
the most important buildings in
China, the CCTV Headquarters is
in fact, designed by him. In this
building, one of Koolhaas’
beliefs can be noticed, which is to
kill the traditional Skyscrapers, as
it is repetitive, lacks creativity,
uninspired in form and competes
only for the ultimate height while
disregarding creative style.
Consequently, Rem Koolhaas
wanted to move away from the
traditional two-dimensional and
box like skyscrapers to a three
dimensional geometrical
structure, in form of a loop. This
loop is supposed to symbolize continuity between past, present and future, and serve
as a connection for the interrelated activities happening throughout the building; to
make the different departments and sections of TV production operate completely
together within the building. Just like mentioned previously, he has the ideology to
shake up well established conventions and clichés and so he did with the CCTV
building. It surpassed expectations of what Skyscrapers are supposed to be. It moved
away from the height-obsessed skyscrapers to a skyscraper with sculptural and spatial
edge. This building -with its extraordinary form- which achieves the appearance of
being both being powerful and conflicted, as it looks like it is being pulled from all
four directions, represents the numerous functions of the building, and the changes
China is currently facing, not to mention its current state. Rem Koolhaas used very
few traditional Chinese ideas in the process of designing the building, to give it a
sense of belonging to the Chinese people, breaking yet another skyscraper convention,
which is basically, not considering tradition and history.

So, what Chinese traditional ideas did he use in the CCTV Headquarters building?

 The blurring of the distinction between the inside and the outside is
reminiscent of the Ming Tombs. (The gate of the CCTV tower is without any
doors and is transparent).
 An underground tunnel connects the CCTV building to the TVCC - the ideas
of using an underground tunnel to connect different parts of the building, is
also found in Ming tombs.
 The two L – like structures are symmetrical to each other. Symmetry of
structures can be seen in their historical and traditional houses.

TVCC building on the left The 2 L’s of the CCTV building

Rem Koolhaas implemented another idea of his, but now into both the TVCC and
CCTV buildings, which is the idea of cross-programming. Where he introduced other
functions and programs into buildings, other than the main one which is TV
programme making. Take for example, the media park which can be found beneath
the open spaces of the TVCC and forms a landscape of public entertainment. The
TVCC itself is a hub for public entertainment as it includes a theatre, shops and
restaurants.
Furthermore, Rem Koolhaas realized the importance of shopping, not only in China
but also all over the world, and so for reasons in addition to cross-programming, he
introduced the public access and shops to the CCTV and the TVCC buildings.

Rem Koolhaas is to a large degree a postmodernist architect, who also uses

Deconstructivism ideas (also a part of the postmodernist movement). He used the
postmodernist philosophy to design the CCTV building. For example, he made the
two L- structures to be of the same size, height and design, this concept reflects one of
the ideas of postmodernism, which is reproduction, reproduction of the same design.
Furthermore, when Koolhaas designed both the CCTV and TVCC buildings, he
intended from them to form their own community, or perhaps their own mini-city,
through accommodating around ten thousand workers, in addition to, the consumer
places (shops, theatres…). The whole site becomes a mini-city that involves vital
aspects to it, such as finance, commerce, trade and information. Overall, the mini-city
and the consumerism culture are all elementary postmodernist aspects. Other post
modernist ideas he uses include reflection, the element of illusion, disorientation and
the irregular angles. For the deconstructivism part, the whole CCTV building can be
viewed in bits pieces; the two L structures and the top looks like an L, as well.
Overall, due to deconstructivism, the visual logic of the building is hard to grasp, it’s
shocking and surprising with its irregular shape. The building appears to be made up
of creative abstract forms.

The L shape structure seen at the top of the CCTV building

KOOLHAAS’ IDEAS AND WORKS IN EUROPE
The influences of Rem Koolhaas have been truly significant and visible throughout
the globe. An area of massive concentration in terms of his personal input is Europe;
The Netherlands to be specific, which is after all, his country of birth.
To begin with, it would be a good idea to look into one of his most outstanding
buildings which is ‘De Rotterdam Building’. This building took around four years to
complete, and was opened to the public in 2013.

Modernism is not a correct category to which ‘De Rotterdam’ would belong to. In
fact, thanks to the irregularity in the shapes and sizes of the different structures of the
building, and more importantly, its non-symmetric character, it would be more suited
to the deconstructivism movement.
Architecture in the Netherlands was influenced a lot by the ‘De Stijl’ movement,
which advocated pure abstraction and universality by a reduction to the essentials
of form and colour and simplified visual compositions to the vertical and horizontal
directions with the use of the primary colours along with black and white.
Surely, ‘De Rotterdam’ can be clearly linked to the movement through the abstraction
and universality theories, and also the visual compositions of the building.
Another fascinating design by the incredible Koolhaas is the Casa de Musica in
Portugal. This building is basically a major concert hall that was built as part of
Porto's project for European Culture Capital in 2001 but was only finished in the first
half of 2005 after which it instantly became an iconic building in the city.
This exuberant and attractive building is very functional in the sense that it wasn’t just
built to look stunning. Every aspect of the Casa de Musica complements the other
perfectly, and hence, it was known as the most important concert halls in the last 100
years, according to The New York Times.

Casa de Musica

Innovative use of materials and colour throughout was another major factor; as well
as the unique curtain-like glass walls at either end of the Grand Auditorium, the walls
are clad in plywood with enlarged wood patterns engraved in gold, giving a dramatic
kick in perspective.
Rem Koolhaas was made famous for his hatred of skyscrapers. This building is
evidence to that statement and is a clear indication that buildings need not be tall to
look good, or to serve a better function.
Still sticking close to the roots of the master himself, the final building that will be
discussed is going to be the ‘Embassy of the Netherlands’ in Berlin, Germany.
This building, opened in 2004, was the main hub for the Dutch mission in Germany.
The looks of the building may seem very deviant to many, but the idea that was
behind its creation was to give it a post-modern feel and to propel it into the future.

Once again, the building is not a 500 meter tall tower, which is further proof to
Koolhaas’s hatred of skyscrapers; it’s a small, compact and equally gorgeous structure
that serves an important purpose.
What it really is, is a solitary building, combining requirements of conventional civil
service security with Dutch openness. Traditional city planning guidelines demanded
the new building to complete the city block in 19th century fashion, something that
was not in the intentions of Koolhaas during its design phase.
In the end, it was situated in a way that it both completed the perimeter of the block,
while retaining its solitude.
Certainly, the concept of functionality is not forgotten. The trajectory works as a main
air duct from which fresh air percolates to the offices to be drawn off via the facade.
This ventilation concept is part of a strategy to integrate more functions into one
element.
KOOLHAAS’ IDEAS AND WORKS IN NEW YORK
Rem Koolhaas made the best use of modern technology and materials to create a new
style of architecture which was completely different from the rest and far away from
the conventional methods. His vision is having a world full of extremes and open to
every kind of human behavior. In search for an ‘after architecture’, Koolhaas travelled
to New York. Here he was commissioned for several projects. His works reflected his
ideas, which searched for a link between technology and humanity. He did not rely
completely on post modern architecture motifs and unlike the CCTV building he did
not use historical references in the buildings which are going to be discussed (for New
York). This idea of avoiding past styles brought an end to sentimentality.
His main ideas: asymmetry (again unlike the CCTV building), challenging use of
space and unexpected use of colors, can be mainly classified as deconstructivism.
This can be seen in his design of the Seattle Public Library.

Seattle Public Library

Here, we can see the unconventional design of the building and the weird angles that
Koolhaas used to make the building look different. Although the building received a
lot of criticism, Koolhaas successfully managed to implement his idea of ‘function
dictates look’. Also Koolhaas suggested an additional hospital room to this library for
the homeless people of the area, which reflects his openness to society, and the ideas
of cross-programming. But, this proposal was later declined.
Koolhaas’ other ideas also include the domination of approach over style. His works
mainly rely on the role of architecture in daily life. This brings him close to another
class of architecture called customization. This reflects the needs of a particular site
and the desire of the client. Koolhaas presented this idea clearly in the Bordeaux
house, which was designed for a client in wheelchair.

Bordeaux House

In this house, he made an entire glass room that also acted as an elevator between the
different levels of the house so as to meet the requirements of his client.
In his architectural forms, Koolhaas chose to engage directly with the modern world.
This brings him to his context of urban modernity as seen in his design of the
Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, also known as the ‘Jewel Box’, located inside the
Venetian Hotel.
Here the urban concept is symbolized through the usage of electronics with different
steel components. This also shows his keen interest in urban planning.

Another significant project of Koolhaas was the Prada store in Beverly Hills, which
fused architecture into the world of fashion

Prada Store, Beverly Hills

The central space of this Prada store is occupied by a massive central staircase as seen
above, displaying various selected items. This signifies the act to edit function and
link to human activities.
Unlike other architects, Koolhaas did not establish a constant look from project to
project. Instead, his designs varied greatly and his habit of shaking up established
conventions gives his architectural designs a unique taste.
Conclusion:

Overall, Rem Koolhaas is a hard-to-beat architect in a league of his own, and one to
whom we can assign a special category. For example, for the CCTV Headquarters
building, he used historical Chinese ideas, but for the Seattle Public Library (and all
the buildings covered in the New York section) he avoided it. Also, for the CCTV
building and Embassy of the Netherlands (in Berlin), he used and relied on both post
modernist and deconstructivism ideas, but for the New York discussed buildings, he
tried to move away from using post modern architecture motifs. He keeps breaking
expectations, clichés and how he and his buildings can be defined. That is the trend
which connects all of his buildings, according to our observations. Furthermore, one
more uniting theme he adopted for his skyscrapers, is the killing of the traditional
skyscraper, just like it was discussed in the CCTV building and De Rotterdam
Building. Through this, we can deduce that he dislikes the lack of creativity, the
uninspired forms of buildings and the repetition of mentioned forms (box-like forms).

Another idea of Koolhaas, which we saw was implemented, or was planned to, was
the ideas of cross-programming. We observed this idea in the CCTV building, in
which he introduced public entertainment related shops in a building that makes TV
programmes, and this cross-programming ideas was planned to be introduced to the
Seattle Public Library, in the form of a hospital room for the homeless.

To sum up Rem Koolhaas in terms of his ideas and beliefs, he is an architect who
likes to break well established conventions and expectations.
Sources:
http://www.dezeen.com/2013/11/08/rem-kill-the-skyscraper-koolhaas-wins-tall-building-
award/

http://www.archdaily.com/294970/rem-koolhaas-a-reluctant-architect/

www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-is-rem-koolhaas-the-worlds-most-controversial-
architect-18254921/?page=1

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