The Controversial Dutch Architect Rem Koolhass - Essay Example

Rem Koolhaas: The Controversial Dutch Architect. Introduction. Rem Koolhaas is one of the most creative, celebrated architects in the modern era. However controversies seem to cloud his great reputation as a star architect. History He was born 67 years ago in in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. His father owned a cultural institute in Jakarta, Indonesia. He studied scriptwriting in Amsterdam and briefly worked as a journalist before travelling to London and eventually New York to study architecture. It is here that he later established his own architectural firm called The Office Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in 1975.He later relocated its Headquarters to Rotterdam where it is based to date. He orchestrated many works of brilliance in many cities the world over and his artistry has earned him many prestigious individual accolades from reputable institutions among them Summary: Why Is Koolhaas the World’s Most Controversial Architect? According to Nicolai Ourousoff, the Smithsonian Magazine, and September issue 2012. Rem Koolhaas is widely respected and critiqued in equal measures. It is noted that he has been this controversial ever since his studentship in the 70s in London. He is unlike the other architects who are ready to compromise their work ethics for economic gains. He is described as being highly provocative and ill-behaved professionally. He has won several architectural competitions with the most recent one being in China. He was commissioned to undertake the building of the Headquarters of China Central Television. This works has been a source of scathing attacks from pro-western institutions and powers who insinuated that he was helping in the expansion of a Dictatorial regime in China. However, other sources described the building as a masterpiece. This is just an example of the mixed reactions his works have elicited. He has taken part in many competitions even though he won some; he has also lost quite a number. For instance, his proposal to spearhead the transformation of the Museum of modern Art into a ministry of self-proclamation known as MoMA Inc. was badly rejected. Even though he has been under pressure from various sources, he has been able to nurture several great modern day architects such as DjarkeIngels of Copenhagen based BIG, and Winy Maas of MVRDV firm in the Netherlands. His books are also widely used by many architectural students all over the world who always try to emulate him. He is quite unpredictable unlike most of his peers and other magnificent architects of his reputation such as FranskGehry and ZahaHadid, who maintained their focus over long careers. Apart from architecture, he is also a great theoretician of the industry and has written quite a number of books concerning different architectural ideologies on major urban cities. In one of his demonstrations in Venice, he was against the out brushing historic buildings that represented more uncomfortable chapters in our past. He further wonders why people incredibly fear change rather than embracing it. His company has since expanded to other cities outside its Headquarters such as Hong Kong and New York. It has employed some 325 employees all architects. However, he has a personal preference for Rotterdam due to its isolation and location as a port city. Even though he is highly reputed, he still takes part in competitions. He concurs that this that this allows for creative liberty due to the changing ideas and preference of the client. However, in this process a lot of risk is involved. A lot of resource is wasted in projects that will never take off. One of his first tests of his urban theories manifested itself in the form of the Euralille development on the outskirts of the French city of Lille in the mid-1990s. It was to include a shopping mall, conference and exhibition center and office towers in the midst of train tracks and freeways. His work was to be complimented by other well-known architects who helped in designing the various buildings. Koolhaas personally designed the magnificent, elliptical shell shaped, convention hall. The project has since been completed and opened. The writer describes the project as highly successful, and depicts it as genuinely unpretentious. It is currently occupied by people of different age brackets, culture and professions. Koolhaas is currently writing a book about the countryside. While writing this book, he was walking with his longtime companion Petra Blaise with whom his been living together with in Amsterdam since separating from his wife a while back. They were on a tour of observation of the country life in the Swiss Alps. As he put it: The people had changed; the cows in the meadows looked different. And I realized we’ve worked on the subject a lot over the years, but we’ve never connected the dots. It has sort of been sublimated. (Ouroussoff, pp 5) Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Why-is-Rem-Koolhaas-the-Worlds-Most-Controversial-Architect-165593696.html#ixzz2SckXuiQw . In the book, he notes the decline of farming over the past 150 years. He observes the extent of urbanization and industrialization in the expense of farming. He observes the souvenir shops, and agricultural land cultivated mostly by Polish workers that is cultivated by tractors driven and cows milked by Robots. Summary: The Interview with Star Architect Rem Koolhaas: Were Building Assembly-Line Cities and Buildings by Spiegel Magazine. This interview tries to expound on the views of Kolhaas about his accomplished works and and also his view on the modern day architectural methods and styles. He had some differing views about major developments in some of the major cities in the world. He was particularly not so impressed stalled work on the Hafen City development Project. He was initially selected to develop the project but the process has been slowed due to what he terms as withholding of necessary funding and political interference. He particularly mentions the change of the Government officials set to oversee the project twice in quick successions. He also discussed his disappointment of not being awarded the chance to construct the Headquarters of the SPIEGEL magazine which he had expressed an interest in developing but his idea was later rejected at an advance stage and handed to the Danish architectural firm Henning Larsen. His development of the Headquarters for Chinese television network CCTV elicited mixed reactions from the media, pro-western institutions and fellow peers. Nicolai Ouroussoff, architectural critique of the New York Times, said this about the building: “may be the greatest work of architecture built in this century.” (pp 1). Other critiques viewed this as a support to the oppressive and dictatorial regime of China and helping it create its most powerful structural symbol. He has recently come up with a new book about the first non-western avan- garde movement in architecture. The book is named “Project Japan.” It talks about the Metabolists who developed an architectural method that completely changed the face of Japan. This event took place in the 1960s by this group of individuals consisting of local architects and other city planners who came up with works that put the needs of the general community first and never prioritized the interest of the private investors who seemed to care only about their personal fulfillments rather than the general benefits of the community at large. Koolhaas’ Comments about the Architectural Industry All through the interview, he was against most of the modern architectural ideologies, planning and strategies employed by various city management authorities all over the world. Some of the major cities he mentioned are Lagos in Africa, New York and London. He briefly described the architectural style of the building of his office premises back in Rotterdam. He feels that it has less character than the SPIEGEL Headquarters. He explains that his office building has zero character in contrast to the headquarters of this magazine. He also expressed his views on the modern Hafen City designed the Behnisch architecture firm. He thinks the Unilever building is not ugly but disorganized and chaotic. He says that modern architecture has failed in the sense that economic gain has overtaken architectural ideologies and principals. Also, he says that both investment of building power to investors rather than professionals has hugely contributed to this failure. He further infused that money plays a big role in modern day architecture while the number of people involved in the process has increased tremendously. Building projects are nowadays development projects leading to generic cities. He also observes that buildings have become soulless hence becoming difficult to determine the message behind the development. He termed these generic methods of building as assembly line cities and assembly line buildings, standardized building and cities. He included HafenCity as one of the generic cities. He feels it has some sense of familiarity; it is not unique in its own way with no clear ambitions portrayed in the entire development. He feels that the earlier architectural principals that observed uniformity in the building of buildings in terms of heights, materials and structural vocabulary are statements of respect. He does not support this idea at all. The modern cities are faceless and similar. He believes that the use of liberal development patterns in major upcoming cities like Dubai, Singapore or Hafen City attracts more immigrants who in turn lead to more internal development of the cities. He believes that neo-liberalism has affected Architecture since it has assigned it a new role limited its range. He doesn’t like the idea of cities selling land to international Investors who disregard historical facts and urban planning in their developments but they solely focus on financial gains. He also criticizes the current restrictive political system that tries to maintain the appearance of control by setting many rules that affect architectural artistry and liberty. There is a lot of bureaucracy in these systems. He has a liking for the Japanese metabolisms, which revolutionized the architectural face of japan when the country was facing enormous challenges from the natural calamities like earthquakes, tsunamis and land parceling. They great individualist yet worked as formidable group. He notes competition in the industry has eroded such beneficial groupings: every architect is looking at their own interests. He believes in the power of the youth leadership. He compared the age of leaders in China who are in their 30s and USA who are in their mid-70s. He argues that failure should be a disaster; artists should be allowed space to experiment with their ideas. Comparisons Koolhaas and Other Top Architects When compared to other architects of his generation, he is considered to more outspoken and controversial. All the other professionals in the field are relatively quiet and solely concentrate in their careers and field of work. He has been loved and hated in equal terms. Works Cited Nicolai Ouroussoff, Smithsonian magazine, Why is Rem Koolhaas the Worlds Most Controversial Architect?, September 2012. Available at: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts- culture/Why-is-Rem-Koolhaas-the-Worlds-Most-Controversial-Architect- 165593696.html?c=y&page=5 , Accessed 5/7/2013. Spiegel Magazine, Interview with Star Architect Rem Koolhaas: Were Building Assembly-Line Cities and Buildings, Online, Available at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/interview-with-star-architect-rem-koolhaas- we-re-building-assembly-line-cities-and-buildings-a-803798-2.html, Accesed, 5/7/2013. Read More