Rem KoolhaasArchitect

By: Adam Brillhart, John Anthal, Sean Obrian, Kenny Modrow

Bio – Rem Koolhaas, Early Years

Rem Koolhaas was born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He spent four years in Indonesia because of his father’s career. He began to follow the path of his father by becoming a writer. He wrote for newspapers and eventually tried writing movies.

Bio – Rem Koolhaas

Rem’s love of writing was recognized by the architectural community and he attended the Architecture Association School in London. He then came to the United States for an internship. While there he wrote a breakthrough in writing; Delirious New York.

Bio – Rem Koolhaas

Rem established himself as an architect and formed the OMA or Office for Metropolitan Architecture in London. Their first major project was a housing plan for Amsterdam. The OMA is still one of the top modern Architecture firms in the world.

Bio - Rem Koolhaas

Rem has produced only a few works but each has been a remarkable piece. His writings have received great acclaim and in the year 2000 won the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Works - Educatorium – Utrecht, Netherlands

The multifunction Educatorium is the centerpiece of a master plan made by OMA (Koolhaas' firm) for the Utrecht University. Educatorium a made up word for a factory for learning. In 1999, the building was awarded the biennial Rietveldprize.

Works - Kunsthal

The compact building designed by the Rotterdam firm of OMA (Rem Koolhaas/Fumi Hoshino) contains a large exhibition space (3300 square metres), distributed over three halls and two galleries. A series of massive ramps and roads carve through the art gallery space, creating the sense that the city is pouring through the structure.

Works – Lille Grand Palais – Lille, France

The master plan for Euralille, France is the largest realized urban planning project by Rem Koolhaas. The one-million-square-meter business, entertainment and residential complex is grafted onto the small medieval town of Lille, north of Paris. Scheduled for completion in 2004, the complex will include a train station, hotel office buildings, shopping mall and restaurants.

Works – Maison a Bordeaux – Bordeaux, France

Time Magazine named Rem Koolhaas's Maison à Bordeaux "Best Design of 1998." The house was designed to accommodate a man who was confined to a wheel chair after an automobile accident. Koolhaas describes the building as three houses because it has three separate sections layered on top of one another.

Works – Netherlands Dance Theater – The Hague, Netherlands

The Netherlands Dance Theatre in The Hague was one of Rem Koolhaas's first completed projects to receive widespread critical acclaim.

Works – Netherlands Embassy – Berlin

The Dutch Embassy in Germany will perch on the banks of the river Spree in the midst of conservative -- some say, drab -- architecture. The plan calls for a compact building with 5000 square meters devoted to offices and 900 square meters for living space. The roof of the building is treated as a separate facade. A large roof-garden terminates a continuous, spiraling route through the structure.

Works – Nexus Housing – Japan

The Nexus Housing project consists of 24 individual homes, each three stories high, in a development in Fukuoka, Japan.

Works – Seaterminal – Belgium

The Zeebrugge Ferry Terminal in Belgium is an important large-scale project addressed by the OMA firm.

Works – Seattle Public Library – Seattle

Rem Koolhaas' radical, deconstructivist design for the Seattle Public Library has been praised... and questioned. Early critics said that Seattle was “bracing for a wild ride with a man famous for straying outside the bounds of convention."

Works – Seattle Public Library – Seattle

Rem Koolhaas' radical, deconstructivist design for the Seattle Public Library has been praised... and questioned. Early critics said that Seattle was “bracing for a wild ride with a man famous for straying outside the bounds of convention."

Awards

Koolhaas was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize for the year 2000

Works Cited

All information, pictures, etc. quoted from http://architecture.about.com/library/blkoolhaas-educatorium.htm