OMA architecture for social circumstance
Dutch Profiles
Dutch Profiles is a series of short documentaries about architects and graphic, product and fashion designers in the Netherlands. The shorts are meant to spread freely over the web in low-res, but also to be shown in high-res as a part of lectures, exhibitions and business presentations. "Dutch Profiles focuses on the conceptual, context-oriented and research-based practice of Dutch designers, telling the story behind some of those well-known images," says commissioner Christine de Baan, programme director of Dutch Design Fashion Architecture.
Dutch Profiles includes interviews with, among others: MVRDV, 2012 Architects, Jurgen Bey, Claudy Jongstra, Gerard Unger, Paul Mijksenaar, Marlies Dekkers, Alexander van Slobbe and G-Star. More profiles will be added during the coming years, reaching an ultimate count of 100.
New video Rem Koolhaas: Architecture for Circumstance
- Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA)
- architecture for social circumstance
- www.oma.eu
- duration: 9'39"
The iconic buildings of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, OMA, and its core principles as embodied by Rem Koolhaas, have gained worldwide attention since its foundation in 1975.
The philosophy and aesthetic developed for competition submissions for and the Centre for Art and Mediatechnology in Karlsruhe, La Villette, the Jussieu campus and the Très Grande Biblioteque in Paris, garnered frenzied international attention and were finally realised in De Kunsthal in Rotterdam.
Rem Koolhaas’ intensive conceptual thoughts on architecture and social circumstances ran simultaneously from the very early stages of his career. With a background in journalism and scriptwriting - his curiosity, research and urge to analyse are basics of his and OMA’s working process.
It is this approach that makes him a highly debated thinker and architect - although he staunchly refutes the label “Starchitect”. This image, he feels, blinds the public to a clear view of what his and OMA’s work is really about.
Casa da Musica in Porto provides a valuable steppingstone for one of OMA’s latest commissioned projects, the Taipei Performing Arts Centre. Treatment of form, innovative techniques, and the celebration of context are key elements of the design. Rather than relocating the roaring Shilin night market from the site of the forthcoming Taipei centre, OMA will instead build its 3 theatres above the market.
The vibrant, dynamic culture of the East forms a crucial element in Koolhaas’ pre-occupation with Asia. As a child he lived in Indonesia for several years. This experience is central to his current fascination with the region – and its architecture.
Koolhaas’ seminal 1978 book Delirious New York, a Retroactive Manifesto, explores the Culture of Congestion in the big city. Nowadays, his focus is shifting to the wider consequences of the rapid growth of mega-cities.
See more Dutch Profiles on www.dutchprofiles.com or http://www.youtube.com/user/DutchProfiles
