Rem Koolhaas / OMA : the construction of Merveilles. / txt
Roberto Gargiani ; translated from the Italian by Stephen Piccolo.
- 343 p. ill. (chiefly col.) ; maps ; plans ; 25 cm. book
- Essays in architecture .
"Distributed by Routledge."
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: 2 Chapter 1. Experiences with the Paranoid Critical Method -- 3 Studies at the Architectural Association School of Architecture of London: Berlin Wall as Architecture and Exodus -- 13 Learning from Manhattan 1972-74 -- 21 Rectangular Projects 1974-75 -- 25 The founding of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture and the project for Welfare Island 1975-76 -- 40 The case of Leonidov and the Floating Swimming Pool -- 43 The “Ductpark”, subconscious infrastructure of the metropolis -- 45 City-archipelago of Ungers: the example of Berlin -- 46 Teaching at the Architectural Association-School of Architecture 1975-80 -- 56 “The Culture of Congestion” and the poché plan of Rome by Nolli -- 62 “Delirious New York”, 1978: paranoid-critical interpretation of the girl and the skyscrapers of Manhattan -- 76 Chapter 2. New Sobriety vs. Post-Modern and Contextualism -- 77 Projects 1978-79: the criteria of the Cadavre Exquis and the Tektonik -- 83 Polemical writing of OMA 1979-80 -- 90 Works for Rotterdam, Berlin, Amsterdam and Scheveningen 1980 -- 102 “Invisible Congestion”: projects for Paris 1982-83 -- 109 The Danstheater at The Hague 1984-87: “collision” -- 114 “Vernacular Modernity” of the mid-1980s -- 118 Strategy of the “void”: project for the Ville Nouvelle at Melun-Sénart and the “Contemporary City” -- 124 The pavilion at the Milan Triennale, the De Brink in Gorningen, the two patio houses in Rotterdam: Miesian surrealism -- 130 The projects for the Churchill-plein in Rotterdam and the City Hall of The Hague: forms of Dutch Manhattanism -- 135 The villa at Saint-Cloud, 1985-91: metamorphosis of the Berlin Wall and the Floating Swimming Pool -- 142 Chapter 3. The epoch of the merveilles -- 143 Projects for the Kunsthal I and the headquarters of the Nederlands Architectuur Institut in Rotterdam 1987-88 -- 148 Kunsthal II, 1989-92, essences of the modern -- 157 The Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie at Karlsruhe and the Trés Grande Bibliothèque de France in Paris: evolutions of the Virendeel beam -- 165 From the Terminal at Zeebrugge to the Grand Palais at Lille: the “importance des merveilles -- 186 Geerlings house in Holten, metaphor of the slipping plane -- 191 Deux Bibliothèques de I’Universitiè Jussieu, Educatorium, Cardiff Bay Opera House and the “pliable surface” -- 203 The house at Floirac, or of the Floating Box -- 215 Projects for Miami, Munich, Almere -- 222 Chapter 4. S, M, L, XL, 1995: principles for a theory of architecture -- 223 Typical Plan, or the neutral rectangular plan -- 227 Theory of Bigness -- 228 “Vierendeel concept” -- 230 Generic City, utopia of the continuous surface -- 235 “Composite stability” and “caractère”: projects for towers -- 246 Chapter 5. Generic volume, informal polyhedral solids and functional diagrams -- 247 The McCormick Tribune Campus Center and the US facilities of Prada: Haussmannian poche and “sponge” -- 258 Guggenheim Museum: OMA vs. Las Vega -- 263 The generic volume with trajectory and the prism with sloping planes: Almere Block 6, Dutch Embassy, Haus um die Schenkung -- 272 The Y2K house, the Casa da Música, the Seattle Public Library: informal polyhedra -- 298 Variants of “Manhattanism” -- 302 Form or program: NeWhitney and LACMA -- 309 Koningin Julianaplein, CCTV and TVCC Hamburg Hafencity: apotheosis of the merveilles -- 320 Junkspace -- 322 Universal Modernization Patent -- 324 The age of icon -- 329 Automatically generated Land Art/Architecture from Ras al Khaimah to St. Petersburg -- 339 Name Index --
This first critical monograph places the work of Rem Koolhaas and OMA in a cultural context that allows the reader to better understand the creative process of modern architecture, retracing the career of Rem Koolhaas in chronological and thematic order.