Rem Koolhaas

Rem Koolhaas (born november 17 1944 in Rotterdam, Netherlands) is a Dutch architect, former journalist and screenwriter who studied architecture at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. He is the principal of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, or OMA, and of its research-oriented counterpart AMO. He is also "Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design" at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design.

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November 17 - 1944 - Rotterdam - Netherlands - Architect - Journalist - Screenwriter - Architecture - Architectural Association School of Architecture - London - Office for Metropolitan Architecture - AMO - Harvard University

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Perhaps better known for his books than his buildings, he has authored several seminal works in architectural theory, including Delirious New York, and S,M,L,XL, a collaboration with the graphic designer Bruce Mau. Koolhaas' work emphatically embraces the contradictions of a discipline that struggles to maintain its humanist ideals of material honesty, the human scale and carefully crafted meaning in a rapidly globalising world that espouses material economy, machine scale and random meaning.

Related Topics:
Architectural theory - Delirious New York - S,M,L,XL - Bruce Mau

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Using a canny direction of observation and diagram, Koolhaas mobilizes the omnipotent forces of urbanism into unprecedented forms and connections organised along the lines of present day society. Shopping is examined for intellectual comfort whilst the unregulated taste and densification of Chinese cities is analysed according to "performance", a critera involving variables with debatable credibility - density, newness, shape, size, money etc. Through his ruthlessly raw approach, Koolhaas hopes to extract the architect from the anxiety of a dead profession and resurrect a contemporary sublime however fleeting it may be

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