Rem Koolhaasdesigning the design process

Who is Rem Koolhaas

- Born in the Netherlands in 1944- Studied script writing in the Netherlands and- Architecture at the AA in London- Co-founded architecture firm OMA in 1975- Co-founded think tank AMO in 1998

http://www.flickr.com/photos/75905404@N00/371038175/

Seattle public library

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wojtekgurak/5827545090/

Casa da Música

CCTV HQ

Rothschild HQ

http://oma.eu/media/291397/rothschildbank___oma_by_philippe_ruault_108_72.jpg

Delirious New York

Project Japan

For four decades Koolhaas has managed to stay at the top of his profession by producing creative, ground-breaking ideas at a record speed - how does he do it?

“To keep thinking about what architecture could be. What I could be.”

Rem Koolhaas

Index Magazine, 2000

1. Observation

1. Observation 2. Studio

1. Observation 2. Studio

3. Models

1. Observation 2. Studio

3. Models

4. Archives

1. Observation 2. Studio

3. Models

4. Archives

5. Books

1. Observation

“We look at the current moment and see where and in what way we could make a certain breakthrough.”

Rem Koolhaas

OMA in conversation, Barbican 2011

2. Studio1. Observation

“What the OMA process focuses on is not the creator but the critic. ”

Rem Koolhaas

INTELLIGENT DESIGN Can Rem Koolhaas kill the skyscraper? New Yorker, 2005

“Of course it’s easier to use materials from the shelf, from the catalogue, but we can’t be on the cutting edge if we do that.”

Kunlé Adeyemi

Made by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture: an ethnography of design, 2009, page 86

“We really want every year at least 25% of our people to be new. And we want them to be young, bright people.”

Victor van der Chijs

Inside OMA, William Wiles, Icon magazine, 149, 2011

“You can walk out or you can stay the whole night and you can work here. You have a freedom to continue to work.”

Mark Veldman

Inside OMA, William Wiles, Icon magazine, 149, 2011

2. Studio

3. Models

1. Observation

"When you have creative minds you get a lot of ideas. The luxury product is in the fact that we an actually test all of them.”

Stephanie Akkaoui

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rmnl/207379365/in/set-72157594225306617/

Inside OMA, William Wiles, Icon magazine, 149, 2011

“Past reception [...] is a meeting room filled with smaller maquettes. At first glance there appear to be perspex and foam models for dozens of projects - but close up you see they’re all clearly the same site, [...], modelled over and over again.”

William Wiles

http://atelierone.wordpress.com/project-four/

Inside OMA, William Wiles, Icon magazine, 149, 2011

http://atelierone.wordpress.com/project-four/

“The model [...] presents itself as a [...] complex entity composed of multitudes of ‘little persons’; it is much bigger, always richer in difference and complexity.”

Albena Yaneva

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rmnl/207379105/

Made by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture: an ethnography of design, 2009, page 26

Open Explore Close

Inspired by Dave Gray, Game Storming

Inspired by Dave Gray, Game Storming

Inspired by Dave Gray, Game Storming

1. Observation 2. Studio

3. Models

4. Archives

“Archiving the models allowed architects to keep the traces of creativity for a longer period of time; de-archiving them meant they could rediscover those traces of design invention that time had left intact.”

Albena Yaneva

http://www.archined.nl/en/reviews/2010/engels/blue-foam/

Made by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture: an ethnography of design, 2009, page 65

“The abandoned and temporarily forgotten model of the private house came up to the office and re-entered the cycles of design. Lingering on the tables of models for months, it was finally taken with new assumptions, reshaped, refreshed and adjusted.”

Albena Yaneva

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wojtekgurak/5827545090/

Made by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture: an ethnography of design, 2009, page 86

“Ten years ago the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) proposed to acquire OMA's archive. They sent an art historian for four months to the office's basement storage to make an inventory of all the items. When the work was done, OMA decided not to sell. Instead they hired the art historian as its archivist.”

Rotor

OMA/Progress free guide

2. Studio

3. Models

4. Archives

5. Books

1. Observation

“We [...] spend a lot of time on making books, which is also part of the presentation materials. There is [...] an element of clarifying things for ourselves.”

Shohei ShigematsuMade by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture: an ethnography of design, 2009, page 33

“Like the tables of models, the books are summaries of the design steps that make the material trajectory of a project traceable. They keep some traces of exploration, and present the results of design experimentation.”

Albena YanevaMade by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture: an ethnography of design, 2009, page 72

http://www.dezeen.com/2010/05/05/oma-book-machine-at-the-architectural-association/

OMA book machine

Conclusion

1. Observation 2. Studio

3. Models

4. Archives

5. Books

the OMA idea machine

“The biggest part of our work [...] disappears automatically. [...] But you can't look at these designs as waste. They're ideas; they will survive in books.”

Rem Koolhaas

We're Building Assembly-Line Cities and Buildings, Der Spiegel 2011

OMA/ProgressBarbican Art Gallery (until 19 February)

Made by the Office of Metropolitan Architecture – An Ethnography of DesignAlbena Yaneva

Thank you!

Sjors Timmer@Sjors

Information Architect at SapientNitro ,blog at notura.com