Rem Koolhaas

Remment Koolhas is a Dutch architect who was born in 1944 in Rotterdam. Koolhaas studied at the Dutch Film Academy, and later worked as a journalist for a daily newspaper in The Hague. Later he decided to start his studies in architecture, first at the Architectural Association School in London and then at Cornell University in New York.

Koolhaas founded the Office for Metropolitan Architecture study in 1980 in London, with Elia Zenghelis, Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp (his wife). Later he joined Zaha Hadid’s team, where he soon achieved enough individual success and became independent.

Koolhaas’ studio soon began to become famous through their participation in the Venice Biennale in 1980, and also with the proposal of some projects including the presidential residence of Ireland or the Villette’s park in Paris, although neither of them was built. For a few years his work is limited to a few small residential projects. The major projects for Koolhaas begin in 1987 with the construction of the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, which was completed in 1992. In this project Koolhaas could implement some of the ideas outlined in his book “Delirious New York,” which he wrote while he was in the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York.

In his book “Delirious New York”, he examines the contradictions of two disciplines, architecture and urbanism, which fight to maintain the human scale in a rapidly globalizing world, and that propels a material economy and large scales.

One of the several aspects of the architecture that’s most analyzed is the program concept, the expected function of the building. Koolhaas introduces the concept of “cross-programming”, or functionality crossed, consisting on unexpected and complementary features within projects whose main purpose is another, like his proposals to include living quarters for the “homeless” in a project for the public library in Seattle, etc.

Koolhaas supports his facet of theoretic architecture with his book “S, M, L, XL” and his incorporation as a professor at the School of Design at the University of Harvard.

Although in Spain is not as popular as other architects, Koolhaas is a very important figure for understanding the development of contemporary architecture. Today he is one of the most best pay in the world’s architectural scene.

Currently he has lots of projects started or pending, but emphasizes on the new Chinese television CCTV headquarters, a building shockingly shaped that marks a milestone in the construction of skyscrapers.