Rem Koolhaas

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Rem Koolhaas
Designing a New Urbanism
3 February 2006
LIBR 578 Planning Design of Libraries
Rey Atienza David Boudinot Bill Caskey Pamela
Dent
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• Library Proposal
• Koolhaas Biography
• Tour of Building Projects
• Current Work
• Summary

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Library Proposal

• A Rem Koolhaas OMA designed library on Victorias
  waterfront
• Focus the buildings users on its contents, not
  its design - Building invisibility
• Vision to design a space that works in the
  unique context of Victoria
• Harmony with its natural setting and with its
  rich history

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Library Proposal, continued

• Koolhaas is an architect who is open to input
  from clients
• Koolhaas and OMAs cutting edge and often
  controversial designs will give the launch of our
  new public space a visibility
• The last thing we want from our community and
  the rest of the world is indifference
• Concept of a partially underwater community
  center and central public library space

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Biography of an ArchitectRem Koolhaas
Life
Work

• Born November 17, 1944 in Rotterdam, Netherlands
• Definitely a celebrity architect, at the opening
  of the Prada stores of his design in New York and
  Los Angeles, he was a recognizable figure

• Former journalist and screenwriter who studied
  architecture at the Architectural Association
  School of Architecture in London
• Founded the Office for Metropolitan Architecture,
  or OMA in 1975
• "Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban
  Design" at Harvard University's Graduate School
  of Design

Theory
Awards

• Author of several works on architectural theory
  Delirious New York and, with graphic designer
  Bruce Mau, S,M,L,XL

• Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate for the year
  2000 (Equivalent to the Nobel Prize)
• TIME Magazine Best Architecture for 2004 (Seattle
  Central Library)
• RIBA Gold Medal (2004). In 2005 Rem Koolhaas
  received the Mies van der Rohe Award for the
  Netherlands Embassy, Berlin

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Koolhaas Fame

• Koolhaas popularity and award winning persona
  bred a new brand of philanthropists including
  Paul Allen and Bill Gates.
• Delivers compelling public performances with
  amazing rhetorical ability.
• He is multilingual and speaks the language of the
  architects, clients and the press.
• The librarians were taught to read blueprints so
  that they could follow along with Koolhaas ideas
  and fully appreciate the functionality and
  appropriateness of this proposed design solutions

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Rem Koolhaas has a vision that goes beyond
library stereotypes

• Diverges from the traditional Carnegie style of
  library.
• Looks at the city as a whole and redeems it.
• Linked his design of the Seattle Public Library
  to a larger framework of global politics,
  commercialization, technology and privatization.

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• The outrageous hot-pink curved hallways threaded
  among the fourth-floor meeting rooms play to the
  public's desire to be shocked by the avant-garde.
  It's the architectural equivalent of the prim
  librarian ripping off her glasses and letting her
  hair down. Such touches may entice patrons who
  have come to associate books with Barnes Noble
  comfort or Amazon.com convenience.

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Koolhaas Vision

• Sought to balance the explosion of information
  with the librarys increasing role as a social
  center.
• "The modern library, especially in a cybercity
  such as Seattle, must transform itself into an
  information storehouse aggressively orchestrating
  the coexistence of all available technologies."
  (Koolhaas)
• Koolhaas work contains a rare blend of
  technical and aesthetics
• He took great care to ensure the placement of
  each design element in order to optimize the view
  of the city. The plethora of windows invites the
  world inside the library and radically strays
  from the idea that the library should have
  cloistered walls. Koolhaas says that "The glass
  goes beyond transparency to absorb every vibe of
  the city."

10
Rem Koolhaas as Visionary Architect

• From the Pritzker Prize Jurors
• A. Rem Koolhaas is that rare combination of
  visionary and implementer philosopher and
  pragmatist theorist and prophet an architect
  whose ideas about buildings and urban planning
  made him one of the most discussed contemporary
  architects in the world even before any of his
  design projects came to fruition.
• B. He is not a formalist, yet he creates form.
  He is not a functionalist, yet programs are the
  generators of his solutions he is not a
  theoretician, yet ideas dominate his work.

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Rem Koolhaas and his thinking about
Post-Occupancy Evaluation

• The people we collaborate with are often
  adventurous in many ways. For instance, when I
  started working on the Seattle Library with Rem,
  I asked him, "Do you want me to do signage, or do
  you want me to think about the project?" He said,
  "I want you to think about the project." Rem
  has systematically worked to break down those
  boundaries. Bruce Mau

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Buildings by Rem Koolhaas

• Kunsthal, (Rotterdam, 1993)
• Euralille (Lille, 1988)
• Netherlands Dance Theater (The Hague, 1988)
• Educatorium, (Utrecht, 1993-1997)
• Netherlands Embassy (Berlin, 2003)
• Guggenheim Museum, (Las Vegas, 2002)
• Nexus Housing (Fukuoka, Japan)
• Retail design for Prada stores (New York 2003,
  Los Angeles 2004)
• McCormick Tribune Campus Center, (IIT Chicago,
  Illinois, 1997-2003)
• Seattle Central Library (2004)
• Casa da Música (Oporto, 2005)
• CCTV HQ, Beijing (Construction Commencing 2004)
• Milstein Hall, Cornell (Planning to begin soon)

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Euralille (Lille, France 1988)
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Educatorium, (Utrecht, 1993-1997)
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McCormick Tribune Campus Center, (IIT Chicago,
Illinois, 1997-2003)
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Kunsthal, (Rotterdam, 1993)
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Casa da Música (Oporto, Portugal 2005)
Casa da Musica concert hall in Porto was
completed and was already voted as one of the
most important concert halls in the world by the
New York Times (April 10th 2005)
http//www.archinform.net/arch/434.htm?IDf839526e
33293eb59463f30c13e4c14b
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• Netherlands Embassy (Berlin, 2003)

Prada Los Angeles
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Seattle Central Library
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Conclusion

• Victoria Public Library needs a more prominent
  Central Library
• A Koolhaas library building will rejuvenate
  downtown Victoria
• An invisible building will blend in with
  Victorias waterfront
• Koolhaas has proved he can work with our
  parameters
• He will design a building that will improve
  library services and be beneficial to the
  community

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Bibliography

• 1. for Bruce Mau http//archrecord.com/people/i
  nterviews/archives/0106mau-1.asp2. for
  collaboration between Mau and Rem on the Seattle
  Library http//designforum.aiga.org/content.cfm?
  ContentAlias_getfullarticleaid7907103. For
  Pritzker jurors http//www.pritzkerprize.com/20
  00annc.htmcit
• Mattern, Shannon. Just how public is the Seattle
  Public Library? Publicity, Posturing and Politics
  in Public Design. Journal of Architectural
  Education. 571 (September 2003). 5-18. HW
  Wilson. U of British Columbia. Accessed 26
  January 2006. ltahref"http//vnweb.hwwilsonweb.co
  m/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid0bc05f7a67b1790e939d3f
  3af5fcffbb02c3dfd3e7a7f973f247bd571433de384dfa2bd9
  5b6926a7fmtC"gt
• Olson, Sheri. Thanks to OMA's blending of cool
  information technology and warm public spaces,
  Seattle's Central Library kindles book lust.
  Architectural Record .1927 (July 2004). 89-97,
  99-101. HW Wilson. U of British Columbia.
  Accessed 26 January 2006lthttp//vnweb.hwwilsonweb.
  com/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid0bc05f7a67b1790e939d
  3f3af5fcffbbeaf70b6f52b9b327bdc8686ef2e3969677d6cc
  ce9055625efmtC"gt