Architect · Netherlands · Born 1944
Rem Koolhaas Biography, Buildings and Best Books
Dutch architect and theorist (born 1944) whose books and buildings, from Delirious New York to the Kunsthal and Maison à Bordeaux, reshaped how architects think about the modern city.
Photo: Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Biography
Rem Koolhaas (born 1944) is a Dutch architect, writer and urban theorist, and the co-founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). Through books such as Delirious New York and S,M,L,XL and buildings such as the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, Maison à Bordeaux and the Seattle Central Library, he has been one of the most influential voices in architecture since the 1970s. He received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2000.
From journalism to the Architectural Association
Born in Rotterdam, Koolhaas spent part of his childhood in Indonesia before returning to the Netherlands, where he worked as a journalist for the Haagse Post and wrote screenplays. He studied at the Architectural Association in London from 1968 to 1972 and then went to Cornell University to work with Oswald Mathias Ungers, followed by a fellowship at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York.
Delirious New York and the founding of OMA
In 1975 he founded OMA in London with Elia Zenghelis, Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp. Three years later he published Delirious New York, a “retroactive manifesto” that read Manhattan as the product of a culture of congestion. The book set out ideas about density, programme and the skyscraper that OMA would test in its competition entries throughout the 1980s.
Rotterdam, Bordeaux and S,M,L,XL
Based in Rotterdam from the 1980s, OMA completed the Netherlands Dance Theatre, the Kunsthal (1992), the Dutch House (1993) and the Euralille masterplan in France. Maison à Bordeaux (1998), built around a moving platform for a client who used a wheelchair, became one of the most celebrated houses of its time. In 1995 Koolhaas and the graphic designer Bruce Mau published S,M,L,XL, a 1,376-page book that organised OMA’s work by scale and changed how architects make books.
AMO, global projects and the Pritzker Prize
In the late 1990s Koolhaas founded AMO, a research studio working on media, politics and retail alongside OMA’s architecture, and led the Harvard Project on the City. The Prada Epicenter in New York (2001), the Seattle Central Library (2004), Casa da Música in Porto (2005) and the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012) followed. He received the Pritzker Prize in 2000 and the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2004, and directed the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale, Fundamentals, in 2014.
Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan
Koolhaas’s first book is still the clearest key to his thinking: a 320-page reading of Manhattan as a laboratory of density that anticipates almost everything OMA went on to build.
View on Amazon
Timeline
- 1944Born on 17 November in Rotterdam.
- 1968Enters the Architectural Association in London.
- 1975Founds OMA with Elia Zenghelis, Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp.
- 1978Publishes Delirious New York.
- 1987Completes the Netherlands Dance Theatre in The Hague.
- 1992Completes the Kunsthal in Rotterdam.
- 1994Euralille opens in Lille, France.
- 1995Publishes S,M,L,XL with Bruce Mau.
- 1998Completes Maison à Bordeaux.
- 2000Receives the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
- 2001Opens the Prada Epicenter in New York.
- 2004Completes the Seattle Central Library and receives the RIBA Royal Gold Medal.
- 2005Casa da Música opens in Porto.
- 2012Completes the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing.
- 2014Directs the Venice Architecture Biennale, Fundamentals.
Best Books on Rem Koolhaas
As an Amazon Associate, ArchEyes earns from qualifying purchases. Book links open on Amazon.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Rem Koolhaas known for?
Rem Koolhaas is known as the co-founder of OMA and the author of Delirious New York and S,M,L,XL. His buildings, including the Kunsthal, Maison à Bordeaux and the Seattle Central Library, treat architecture as a way to organise the density and programme of the modern city. He received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2000.
What are Rem Koolhaas’s most famous buildings?
His best-known buildings with OMA include the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, Maison à Bordeaux, the Seattle Central Library, Casa da Música in Porto and the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing.
What is the best book on Rem Koolhaas?
Start with Delirious New York, his own retroactive manifesto for Manhattan, which explains the ideas behind much of his later work. S,M,L,XL is the essential record of OMA’s first two decades.
What is Rem Koolhaas’s architectural style?
Koolhaas resists a fixed style. His work is often grouped with deconstructivism and late modernism, but it is driven by programme, section and the culture of the city rather than by form, and it frequently mixes industrial materials with unexpected spatial sequences.
Where can I see Rem Koolhaas’s architecture?
You can visit the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, the Seattle Central Library, Casa da Música in Porto, Fondazione Prada in Milan and the Ruhr Museum at the Zollverein complex in Essen, all designed by OMA.
