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010 Publishers Rotterdam 2009
Made by the Office for Metropolita Architectu An Ethnogr of Design Sign up to vote on this title
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010 Publishers Rotterdam 2009
Experiencing Absence
1
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Rem Koolhaas
Methods of MVRDV
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Made by the Office for Metropolita Architectu An Ethnogr of Design Albena Yan
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For Bruno Latour
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my publisher for enco to systematically explore the large pile of int ethnographic materials collected during my observation in the Office for Metropolitan in Rotterdam (oma ) in the period 2002-4 I thank the architects from the oma for th and enthusiasm to participate in such a non-c enquiry and for passionately sharing with m views on architecture and their mundane pre A grant from the Graham Foundation Studies in the Fine Arts in Chicago and a scho the Max Planck Institute for the History o Sign up toenabled vote on title in Rotterdam Berlin thethis fieldwork chester Architecture Research Centre at the U Useful Not useful Manchester You're Reading a Preview provided a stimulating environm pleting the research and writing. Unlock full access with a free trial.
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Rem Koolhaas
Methods of MVRDV
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News For Bruno Latour
Documents
Acknowledgements
Sheet Music
I would like to thank my publisher for enco to systematically explore the large pile of int ethnographic materials collected during my observation in the Office for Metropolitan in Rotterdam (oma ) in the period 2002-4 I thank the architects from the oma for th and enthusiasm to participate in such a non-c enquiry and for passionately sharing with m views on architecture and their mundane pre A grant from the Graham Foundation Studies in the Fine Arts in Chicago and a scho the Max Planck Institute for the History o Berlin enabled the fieldwork in Rotterdam chester Architecture Research Centre at the U You're Reading a Preview Manchester provided a stimulating environm pleting the research and writing. Unlock full access with a free trial.
Download With Free Trial
Table of Contents
The Office With Two Doors Explaining Design 18
9
Voices
What Is So Special About oma ? 31 One Month Without Models! 45
Stories
The Dance 51 The Restless Traveller 64 Sign up to vote this title Diamonds Andon Sponge 75 On The Way To Porto 86 Useful Not useful
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Unlock full access with a free trial. Reconnecting Practice And Meaning
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Experiencing Absence
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Rem Koolhaas
Methods of MVRDV
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Table of Contents
Sheet Music The Office With Two Doors Explaining Design 18
9
Voices
What Is So Special About oma ? 31 One Month Without Models! 45
Stories
The Dance 51 The Restless Traveller Diamonds And Sponge On The Way To Porto
You're Reading a Preview
64 75 86
Unlock full access with a free trial. Reconnecting Practice And Meaning
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107
The Office Wi th Two Doors
After scribbling hectically in my notebook, I big poster of the Astor building hanging on a office in Rotterdam; my hand pauses for a wh carefully inspect all the objects around me. behind the notes again. We discuss the no approach to the façade of the building, ot projects and approaches to design; my hand bles excited notes on the page; my eyes stray office to identify other images of oma buildin of design. Whenever my hand stops, my eyes again, inspecting the office. It is an ordinar it has two doors and two glass walls. One doo Sign to connects vote onhim thiswith titlethe secretaries’ of ofup Rem, larger glass doorNot a glass wall are facing him Useful yet anduseful You're Reading a Preview simultaneously visually connecting up wi open-plan and the small-scale scenery of th Unlock full access with a free trial. architects at the oma . The second glass wall 1
2
3
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Methods of MVRDV
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The Office Wi th Two Doors
Sheet Music
After scribbling hectically in my notebook, I big poster of the Astor building hanging on a office in Rotterdam; my hand pauses for a wh carefully inspect all the objects around me. behind the notes again. We discuss the no approach to the façade of the building, ot projects and approaches to design; my hand bles excited notes on the page; my eyes stray office to identify other images of oma buildin of design. Whenever my hand stops, my eyes again, inspecting the office. It is an ordinar it has two doors and two glass walls. One doo of Rem, connects him with the secretaries’ of larger glass door and a glass wall are facing him You're Reading a Preview yet simultaneously visually connecting up wi open-plan and the small-scale scenery of th Unlock full access with a free trial. architects at the oma . The second glass wall opens his office to the vast urban scenery of Like two transparent membranes, these walls Download With Free Trial from and help him immerse in two differen the slow Dutch cadence of urban life out there s the glass wall behind Rem, and the busy office through the glass wall facing him. Wheneve the splendid scenery outside, Holland is out t – all the places where he lived, all the people f designed and built. Whenever he stares at the the entire world is in here – Seattle, Cordoba Porto, Beijing, Saint Petersburg – placed on di of models, sharing the same flat office spac 1
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1 Astor Place Hotel, New York, USA, 1999; Boutique Ian Schrager in collaboration with Herzog and de Meuron; commission. 2 On Koolhaas’s non-modernist approach, see Latour, 2005a. 3 Rem Koolhaas, Madelon Vriesendorp, Elia and Zoe Zenghelis fo for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in 1975. They signed their under the mysterious acronym OMA. The OMA i n Rotterdam was o
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of any geographic distances – waiting to be reinvented by as a cumulative result of repetitions, correction design. ments of that initial set of conceptual drawin Once in the office, a tiny question lingered in my mind by the hand of a skilful master arch itect. for a while: ‘Where is his drawing pad?’ In his office, there If Rem Koolhaas does not draw, or only ra casionally draws, this is because design at th were many books, large panels of different oma buildings, material samples and models, but there was no drawing begins with collective experimentation at board. The tiny question then grew into a bigger one: models and not with a single-authored sketc ‘Does Rem Koolhaas draw at all?’ The question holds a by and ‘is a response to a certain network’ provocation, though provocation is precisely what Rem engineers, contractors and consultants, draw taught me to value the most for two years of participant and drawing hands, boards and tracing pap observation in his office. If I am to argue that he does not action is distributed differently in the om to the practices of Hadid or Gehry. Thus, it draw just because I have never seen him drawing, what does this tell us about the nature of design in the oma or the pected that an architect would not be on his specificity of their buildings? Whenever it looks like Rem creative process; there is a variety of other in is drawing he is usually scribbling on a printed diagram or human and non-human, who participate Sign up to on this title make it avote heterogeneous and genuinely co-op making a plan to correct it, or selecting one design option among many, or giving input to the design process to f urture. As Rem himself states, ‘it’s not me, it’s Useful A Not useful You're Reading a Preview ther direct design reflection. Why have I never seen him building or an urban concept that holds the emerges as a relational effect of a whole net drawing but just scribbling like an anthropologist would Unlock full access with a free trial. do? Is it because most of present-day architects do not than as a sketch that travels and is collectively t 9
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Methods of MVRDV
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of any geographic distances – waiting to be reinvented by as a cumulative result of repetitions, correction design. ments of that initial set of conceptual drawin Once in the office, a tiny question lingered in my mind by the hand of a skilful master arch itect. for a while: ‘Where is his drawing pad?’ In his office, there If Rem Koolhaas does not draw, or only ra casionally draws, this is because design at th were many books, large panels of different oma buildings, material samples and models, but there was no drawing begins with collective experimentation at board. The tiny question then grew into a bigger one: models and not with a single-authored sketc ‘Does Rem Koolhaas draw at all?’ The question holds a by and ‘is a response to a certain network’ provocation, though provocation is precisely what Rem engineers, contractors and consultants, draw taught me to value the most for two years of participant and drawing hands, boards and tracing pap observation in his office. If I am to argue that he does not action is distributed differently in the om to the practices of Hadid or Gehry. Thus, it draw just because I have never seen him drawing, what does this tell us about the nature of design in the oma or the pected that an architect would not be on his specificity of their buildings? Whenever it looks like Rem creative process; there is a variety of other is drawing he is usually scribbling on a printed diagram or human and non-human, who participate in make it a heterogeneous and genuinely co-op making a plan to correct it, or selecting one design option among many, or giving input to the design process to f urture. As Rem himself states, ‘it’s not me, it’s You're Reading a Preview ther direct design reflection. Why have I never seen him A building or an urban concept that holds the emerges as a relational effect of a whole net drawing but just scribbling like an anthropologist would Unlock full access with a free trial. do? Is it because most of present-day architects do not than as a sketch that travels and is collectively t draw? Or, at least Pritzker prize laureates? This is not modified and translated on the way toward th entirely true. Frank Gehry draws, Zaha Hadid draws, and ing. Download With Free Trial Just as it is impossible to understand Remb we can extend this list. In their offices, design is launched by a conceptual sketch made by the master architect and without understanding the aspects of his stu this is furthered by many other drawing hands and with the help of Autoca d and other software. The younger 4 Design at the OMA happens on different tables, which contain va of a building, its parts and detailed variations. The tables are impor designers will spend days and nights trying to achieve the and flexible organizational nodes in the process of design (Yaneva same shade of grey or black as Zaha Hadid, or the same 5 On Zaha Hadid and the importance of her design drawings an strategy for the success of a project, see Crickhowell, 1997. curved outlines as the ones produced by the creative think6 On Frank Gehry’s drawing techniques, see Rappolt and Violette ing that ‘let Frank Gehry’s designer’s hand trace the mind’s 2006; on the social use of architectural drawing, see Robbins, 199 7 Alpers described the Rembrandt enterprise emphasizing his spe non-preconceived intentions that go beyond the limits of training his assistants and students to do an amazing amount of co the human imagination’. Triggered by a single slight of produced by the master in the studio; the students followed his hand, in a moment of quasi-artistic inspiration but reprodrawings while he corrected and retouched the drawings, in a way known as paradigmatic for his time were indeed painted by the han duced, repeated, retouched and corrected many times, than by Rembrandt himself as single creative genius (Alpers, 1988 slightly altered, versioned, rendered, rescaled, and displaced, 8 Interview with Ole, November 2002, OMA. 9 The term ‘non-human’ is used by Bruno Latour to replace ‘objec the building emerges as a collective product, yet often widen its scope. Latour’s view is that non-humans have an active r signed by the same hand that drew the first sketches. These forgotten or denied. He employs the terms ‘human’ and ‘non-hum are, ‘Rembrandt-like’ workshops where the building arises restricted subject-object distinction and bypass it entirely (see 9
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oma : ‘1 The research stage – at the end of th along with his specific handling of paint, the theatrical content is defined; 2 The concept design – treatment of his models and his relationship with the market, it is impossible to understan d Koolhaas’s work withdefined and the building is beautiful; 3 out considering his design practice. If you still find it disdesign – the building is defined. The presenta turbing that some of the works of a great artist, seen as very often exhibit the schematic design and d paradigmatic, are painted by other hands, you will not fo r opment; or conceptual and schematic design; a moment be less confused than I was when sitting in the development – the building is feasible. In d office with two doors, comprehending that the hands of an opment, the building is becoming ugly and u architect like Rem Koolhaas rarely take part in the collecmembered into different schemes and file tive process of drawing and modelling in the om a . Realbecomes beautiful again at the end; 5 The izing that, it is astounding to see architectural theorists documents – the building is executable; still desperately trying to understand his style, idiosyncrasy tion, administration and planning – the buil and strengths by simply referring to his singularity and 7 Lectures, publications, exhibitions – once individuality as a ‘creator’ – to his childhood, major archiis built.’ tectural influences upon his work, or his Dutch-ness – as Thus, following what according to Marku Sign up to vote on and thissequential title if we were to judge him as an eighteenth-century unique structured, linear process see genius. That a contemporary architect is not reducible to very simple research task for an ethnographe Useful Not useful You're Reading a Preview his autographic œuvre is nothing that would surprise designOnly after a week of participant observati ers today. Much less would the reader be amazed by a out that the design process at th e oma had its Unlock full access with a free trial. definition of architecture as a co-operative activity of archirhythm and tempo, that models and plans hav 10
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Methods of MVRDV
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oma : ‘1 The research stage – at the end of th along with his specific handling of paint, the theatrical content is defined; 2 The concept design – treatment of his models and his relationship with the market, it is impossible to understan d Koolhaas’s work withdefined and the building is beautiful; 3 out considering his design practice. If you still find it disdesign – the building is defined. The presenta turbing that some of the works of a great artist, seen as very often exhibit the schematic design and d paradigmatic, are painted by other hands, you will not fo r opment; or conceptual and schematic design; a moment be less confused than I was when sitting in the development – the building is feasible. In d office with two doors, comprehending that the hands of an opment, the building is becoming ugly and u architect like Rem Koolhaas rarely take part in the collecmembered into different schemes and file tive process of drawing and modelling in the om a . Realbecomes beautiful again at the end; 5 The izing that, it is astounding to see architectural theorists documents – the building is executable; still desperately trying to understand his style, idiosyncrasy tion, administration and planning – the buil and strengths by simply referring to his singularity and 7 Lectures, publications, exhibitions – once individuality as a ‘creator’ – to his childhood, major archiis built.’ tectural influences upon his work, or his Dutch-ness – as Thus, following what according to Marku if we were to judge him as an eighteenth-century unique structured, linear and sequential process see genius. That a contemporary architect is not reducible to very simple research task for an ethnographe You're Reading a Preview his autographic œuvre is nothing that would surprise designOnly after a week of participant observati ers today. Much less would the reader be amazed by a out that the design process at th e oma had its Unlock full access with a free trial. definition of architecture as a co-operative activity of archirhythm and tempo, that models and plans hav tects and support personnel alike, humans and models, able trajectories, that the concept of the build paints and pixels, material samples and plans, all of which tioned whatever the stage of design may be, t Download With Free Trial constitute the design world . Yet, such realistic accoun ts of many rhythmic conduits through which the contemporary architectural practices are still missing. ops and they would not necessarily cor respon ticular stage in the process diagram drawn by A quick scheme or a slow story? other architects put it: ‘When you look at oma Shortly after I started working at the , I met Markus who was th e head of am o at the time. He was intrigued 10 See Alpers, 1988. 11 Here I follow Becker’s understanding of the world of art as a co by my study, but he could not understand why I wanted to (Becker, 1974; Becker, 1982). spend so much time in the office following projects and 12 For more traditional sociological analyses of architectural firms Cuff, 1991. architects at work. One day he came to me and sat on the 13 This research started as a post-doctoral project carried out in L table where I was working. He took a pencil and drew a group at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berli diagram of the process. This was one of those step-by-step at the Harvard University i n Peter Galison’s group. 14 AMO is the counterpart to OMA’s architectural practice. AMO i gradual rational design-process schemes that you often and think-tank that operates beyond the boundaries of architectur find in many books on design. – including sociology, technology, media, and politics. It is in charg conceptual work of architectural research, of conceptual architect Happy with the visual result, Markus made a small ‘to is in charge of architectural projects, or architecture built. As Ole do’ list for me to follow. He wanted to save me time by of OMA says, AMO is the mirror image of OMA, OMA*AMO shows providing a quick overview of the stages of design at the of practical and theoretical intelligence. 10
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from a distance it is a linear process, but during the design also a very fragile process – when a b uilding is ing and as long as it exists as a scale model, its it is really hard to say where exactly we are going.’ Moving according to different trajectories of space and time, very tentative, very frail. At any moment in designers perform series of steps with various intensities it can live or it can die, it can merge into some and speeds. This requires taking into account the rhythms can be reused, recollected. That is, a view and the minute material operations of design, the matericonstituted from the inside; it stems from th ality, the equipment and the variable ontology of the actors of making. involved. To grapple with that mundane rhythm o f design at the oma , I needed to engage in slow observation and Why stories? analysis rather than follow quickly drawn schematic dia This writin g strategy aims at creating a grams of the process. trying to direct attention to the reader himsel Accounting for the momentum in the practice of the life and experience as a design er. The stories Office for Metropolitan Architecture ( 2001-4), this book read as information about how design alw offers an ethnographic glance at design. It gathers small happens in the oma (many architects’ account accounts of different design trajectories, reminiscent of contradict what my interviewees said in Sign upthe toshort votestories on this title short stories. These are narratives I told many times while Yet, told here will guide read working in or presenting my work on the oma , but which the kind of signsNot immerse them in the kin Useful and useful You're Reading a Preview I never wrote down separately. They are stories that they need to witness in order to understand wh deserve to be told. Written as such, they provide interpreentails at the oma . The good reader of such s Unlock full access with a free trial. tations of the design process without drawing sequential not be one who asks ‘Is this true? What real 15
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from a distance it is a linear process, but during the design also a very fragile process – when a b uilding is ing and as long as it exists as a scale model, its it is really hard to say where exactly we are going.’ Moving according to different trajectories of space and time, very tentative, very frail. At any moment in designers perform series of steps with various intensities it can live or it can die, it can merge into some and speeds. This requires taking into account the rhythms can be reused, recollected. That is, a view and the minute material operations of design, the matericonstituted from the inside; it stems from th ality, the equipment and the variable ontology of the actors of making. involved. To grapple with that mundane rhythm o f design at the oma , I needed to engage in slow observation and Why stories? analysis rather than follow quickly drawn schematic dia This writin g strategy aims at creating a grams of the process. trying to direct attention to the reader himsel Accounting for the momentum in the practice of the life and experience as a design er. The stories Office for Metropolitan Architecture ( 2001-4), this book read as information about how design alw offers an ethnographic glance at design. It gathers small happens in the oma (many architects’ account accounts of different design trajectories, reminiscent of contradict what my interviewees said in short stories. These are narratives I told many times while Yet, the short stories told here will guide read working in or presenting my work on the oma , but which the kind of signs and immerse them in the kin You're Reading a Preview I never wrote down separately. They are stories that they need to witness in order to understand wh deserve to be told. Written as such, they provide interpreentails at the oma . The good reader of such s Unlock full access with a free trial. tations of the design process without drawing sequential not be one who asks ‘Is this true? What real linear storylines; nor do they rely on predictable narratives there? Is it always like this in t he oma ? Would of events. Short stories, as a literary genre, revolve around of the typical design process if I were to go t Download With Free Trial the resolution of a conflict, a tension, a false assumption, now and try to unravel the secrets of such an inversed expectation, and often have unexpected iron ic design practice?’ Rather it would be someone or tricky endings. Similarly, concise ethnographic accounts ask the question: ‘What is happening to me a rely on a fold in time and space to account for the distincunfold, now, as I follow the complex trajectori tive features of design in this office; image patterns evoke a sense of the reality of design. The different stories follow 15 Discussion with Erez and Sarah, April 2002, OMA. 16 Design is commonly described in the design literature as a rati often unconnected projects and events. Nevertheless, their linear process, see Jones, 1970; Heath, 1984; Rowe, 1987; Shosh sequence provides an extended story arc, progressing Lawson, 1994. The analysis in this book will circumvent the li design process. through accumulation. The common feature of all stor ies 17 A different study of design in the making, based on rare ethno is that they all account for the nature of design invention; from the OMA with a particular focus on the projects for the extens the latter is not reduced here to an abstract concept of Museum of American Art in New York, was publi shed in a separate b 18 Some recent investigations on design practice have shown an creation or construction. Instead, I tackle it as something alternative thinking in architecture, but rely mainly on the designers that resolves into concrete actions and practices: in collecthan on the experiences of designing architects (see Hubbard, 199 Fisher, 2000). My study is rather inspired by architectural analyses tive rituals, techniques, habits and skills ingrained by practices of designing architects as reflective practitioners (Schön, training and daily repetition, in reuse of materials and 1985) and on the particular translations of architectural visuals on t recycling of historical knowledge and foam chunks. It is final building (Evans, 1997; Evans, 1989). 15
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and designers at the om a ?’ Design specificity is not really take part in an intriguing story; design proce there, out there, any more. To recollect a moment in the a reflexive and responsive event. office life I simply rely on the way the architects I inter viewed understood design. In the process of reading, you, 19 For such accounts see Lucan, 1991; Cuito and Montes, 2002; Levene et al., 2006. as a reader can also become a producer of another text that 20 For interview-based reconstructions of the OMA approach, see transforms, translates, embroiders and adds to the unbroChaslin, 2001. 21 Here I follow closely Latour’s distinction between meta-reflexive ken chain of interpretations of the oma ’s design practice. writing. As he put it: ‘There is more reflexivity in one account that m In other words, I do not wish to offer a normal linear matalive than in one hundred self-reference loops that return the boring ter-of-fact reconstruction of the practice of oma , recalling the stage.’ Latour, 1988, p. 173. the different periods and generations of projects in office life, recollecting the narratives of the master architect and the different cohorts of designers. The stories do not correspond to case studies from office practice, assuming that, like many social scientists would do, the findings of a case study show the larger framewor k Sign up to vote on this title within wh ich the case is situated and by which it is ultimately determined. My stories do not aim at reaching a Useful Not useful You're Reading a Preview meta-level of explanation of design, of specific oma buildings or of Koolhaas’s style in general. In contrast, they Unlock full access with a free trial. remain self-exemplifying – they ‘just’ offer the world lived 19
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Methods of MVRDV
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and designers at the om a ?’ Design specificity is not really take part in an intriguing story; design proce there, out there, any more. To recollect a moment in the a reflexive and responsive event. office life I simply rely on the way the architects I inter viewed understood design. In the process of reading, you, 19 For such accounts see Lucan, 1991; Cuito and Montes, 2002; Levene et al., 2006. as a reader can also become a producer of another text that 20 For interview-based reconstructions of the OMA approach, see transforms, translates, embroiders and adds to the unbroChaslin, 2001. 21 Here I follow closely Latour’s distinction between meta-reflexive ken chain of interpretations of the oma ’s design practice. writing. As he put it: ‘There is more reflexivity in one account that m In other words, I do not wish to offer a normal linear matalive than in one hundred self-reference loops that return the boring ter-of-fact reconstruction of the practice of oma , recalling the stage.’ Latour, 1988, p. 173. the different periods and generations of projects in office life, recollecting the narratives of the master architect and the different cohorts of designers. The stories do not correspond to case studies from office practice, assuming that, like many social scientists would do, the findings of a case study show the larger framewor k within wh ich the case is situated and by which it is ultimately determined. My stories do not aim at reaching a You're Reading a Preview meta-level of explanation of design, of specific oma buildings or of Koolhaas’s style in general. In contrast, they Unlock full access with a free trial. remain self-exemplifying – they ‘just’ offer the world lived in the office, and depict it, deploy it, whenever the story allows. They recount how models, as virtual beings, gain a Download With Free Trial concrete reality little by little; they tell of how story-telling reveals traces of their metamorphoses, some of their trajectories . In my efforts to forestall certain outcomes and encourage others, I attempt to gather as many allies as possible; I challenge my ‘adopted’ languages and try out linguistic possibilities. The meta-reflexive way of writing is based on the idea that the most deleterious effect of a text is to be naively believed by the reader as relating to a referent out there in some way; it is far from being prod uctive. I prefer to follow an infra-reflexive approach that goes against this common belief by asking no privilege for the account at h and. This exercise in infra-reflexive writing can be seen as a test of the short story genre in design studies. In the accounts presented here, architects and their models are free and active anthropological projects, full of life, and ready to 19
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Explaining Design
architecture in the 1920s and 1930s will be q other storyline would follow his background a for the Haagse Post and his work as a screenw Looking at the scenery in the office, one can see the table childhood in Indonesia, connecting it with of models of the team working on a competition entry for tural approach and trying to clarify its distinc new nato headquarters. A couple of tables further on is His fascination with Manhattan and his theor the huge table with models of the China Central Television scraper, density and congestion will be expl building in Beijing ( cctv), and in the corner close to the Dutch-ness and the fact that the first settlers o shelves with materials, the Cordoba project, surrounded were Dutch recreating their own country wit by Spanish speaking architects. The Seattle Public Library And the list of interpretations can be contin monumental model is kept on a separate table on the ground revolve around these lines. The admiration floor, while the models for the extension of the Whitney tectural critics and theorists covers the ‘symb Museum of American Art in New York are displayed on of buildings, the ideas, the subjective imagin another table. Spread on three tables are the models of creator, whereas ‘matter’ is a term of depreciati the Los Angeles County Museum of Art ( lacma ), whereis seen as a synonym of banality, and ‘design e Sign up to on this as just one huge model of the recently completed la Casa trivial, as vote something to betitle explained away or ap da Musica in Porto has been kept. Why were these buildExploding inNot world of architectural h Useful the useful You're Reading a Preview 1990s, critical theory embedded itself in the ings made this way? How do oma architects come to these shapes? a myriad of different shapes and means. Cr Unlock full access with a free trial. A critical sociologist o r anthropologist would explain studies of single architects or architectural 22
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Explaining Design
architecture in the 1920s and 1930s will be q other storyline would follow his background a for the Haagse Post and his work as a screenw Looking at the scenery in the office, one can see the table childhood in Indonesia, connecting it with of models of the team working on a competition entry for tural approach and trying to clarify its distinc new nato headquarters. A couple of tables further on is His fascination with Manhattan and his theor the huge table with models of the China Central Television scraper, density and congestion will be expl building in Beijing ( cctv), and in the corner close to the Dutch-ness and the fact that the first settlers o shelves with materials, the Cordoba project, surrounded were Dutch recreating their own country wit by Spanish speaking architects. The Seattle Public Library And the list of interpretations can be contin monumental model is kept on a separate table on the ground revolve around these lines. The admiration floor, while the models for the extension of the Whitney tectural critics and theorists covers the ‘symb Museum of American Art in New York are displayed on of buildings, the ideas, the subjective imagin another table. Spread on three tables are the models of creator, whereas ‘matter’ is a term of depreciati the Los Angeles County Museum of Art ( lacma ), whereis seen as a synonym of banality, and ‘design e as just one huge model of the recently completed la Casa trivial, as something to be explained away or ap da Musica in Porto has been kept. Why were these buildExploding in the world of architectural h You're Reading a Preview 1990s, critical theory embedded itself in the ings made this way? How do oma architects come to these shapes? a myriad of different shapes and means. Cr Unlock full access with a free trial. A critical sociologist o r anthropologist would explain studies of single architects or architectural the superiority of society or culture by simply introdu cing limited and trivial, it offered to use any informed academic discipline (history, cultura into the explanation higher levels of complexity, of emerDownload With Free Trial gent properties, of microstructures: How is American culthropology, geography, sociology) as a menta ture, for instance, embedded in the design of the Seattle ‘an [outer] explicit framework in which to situa Library, how are Chinese politics mirrored in the cctv tectural objects of study’. As a result, post-s tower in Beijing, how is Portuguese culture reflected in the Casa da Musica? Are they below the tiny scale models 22 NATO, Brussels, Belgium, 2002; competition for a new, extend or above them, explaining them? That is, the factors that NATO Headquarters. 23 CCTV Headquarters, Beijing, China, 2002; new headquarters a would explain and glorify architecture by placing it on a for China Central Television; under construction. remote pedestal do not arise within th e realm of architec24 Cordoba Congress Center, Cordoba, Spain, 2002; congress ce east and west banks of Cordoba; design stage. ture. Another possible line of explanation is to elucidate 25 Seattle Central Library, Seattle, USA, 2004; built. Koolhaas’s buildings and design approach with larger, 26 Whitney Museum extension, New York, USA, 2001; concept. overarching conceptual frameworks and theoretical influ27 LACMA extension, Los Angeles, USA, 2001; design proposal f the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; competition submission. ences: to what extent was the early Koolhaas influenced 28 Casa da Musica, Porto, Portugal, 2005; concert hall for the Cit by Surrealism? The impact of the Modern Movement on 29 See Koolhaas, 1978; Vidler, 1992; Hill, 2003; Mical, 2005. 30 See Lucan, 1991. his design work will be recalled, his rapport with functio31 See Damisch, 1991. nalism, the theoretical influence of Mies van der Rohe 32 They rely on a limited understanding of empiricism as a blatant or le Corbusier, of Russian constructivism, of American trivialize architectural practice (see Colquhoun, 1981; Johnson, 19 22
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feminism, psychoanalysis, (post-)Marxism, post-modern of time, or to shed light on urb an dynamics an opments. critical theory and a multitude of other formulations have changed not only the interpretative categories but also the The ‘broader and more inclusive’ types very epist emological foundatio ns on which architectural generally address ‘matters o f race, sexuality, c analysis, social space, the way in which m theory was grounded. Critical theory postulated that in order to see the logical patterns of an architectural process created and transferred by means of experien or product, the latter should be extracted from the rather action, gender and so on’. For the critical au messy and irregular process of a production method full ing with these kinds of things in both archit of insignificant details; one should rather go upwards until duction specifically and cultural production embracing higher-level theoretical frameworks outside maximizes the opportunity to learn all that ar architecture – social factors, cultures, politics. Architecand might be capable of’. In addition, they c tural theorists pursued a wider conceptual framework for ‘to speak about architectural history without architecture, which, as many thinkers denoted, was missing: these things, to other disciplines, to theory, i a framework that could embrace activities from patronage dismiss architecture’s relevance to the world through to construction and use. but also to trivialize [the italics are mine: ay Sign up toand vote on this title To avoid triviali The main assumption of critical theory is that archiditions preoccupations’. tecture is something capable of being ins erted and undercal theorists engage in an exploration of a Useful Not useful You're Reading a Preview stood in wider comprehensions of cultural production. hidden meanings and practices, advocating believe to be a ‘richer and more significant’ un Therefore, to put across the meaning and the relevance of Unlock full access with a free trial. architecture, critical studies find it necessary to p osition it of architecture. Having the ambitious task of 34
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Methods of MVRDV
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feminism, psychoanalysis, (post-)Marxism, post-modern of time, or to shed light on urb an dynamics an opments. critical theory and a multitude of other formulations have changed not only the interpretative categories but also the The ‘broader and more inclusive’ types very epist emological foundatio ns on which architectural generally address ‘matters o f race, sexuality, c analysis, social space, the way in which m theory was grounded. Critical theory postulated that in order to see the logical patterns of an architectural process created and transferred by means of experien or product, the latter should be extracted from the rather action, gender and so on’. For the critical au messy and irregular process of a production method full ing with these kinds of things in both archit of insignificant details; one should rather go upwards until duction specifically and cultural production embracing higher-level theoretical frameworks outside maximizes the opportunity to learn all that ar architecture – social factors, cultures, politics. Architecand might be capable of’. In addition, they c tural theorists pursued a wider conceptual framework for ‘to speak about architectural history without architecture, which, as many thinkers denoted, was missing: these things, to other disciplines, to theory, i a framework that could embrace activities from patronage dismiss architecture’s relevance to the world through to construction and use. but also to trivialize [the italics are mine: ay The main assumption of critical theory is that archiditions and preoccupations’. To avoid triviali tecture is something capable of being ins erted and undercal theorists engage in an exploration of a You're Reading a Preview stood in wider comprehensions of cultural production. hidden meanings and practices, advocating believe to be a ‘richer and more significant’ un Therefore, to put across the meaning and the relevance of full access with a free trial. architecture, critical studies find it necessary to p ositionUnlock it of architecture. Having the ambitious task of as a historical subject within various contexts in order to space of imaginative abstraction beyond of th be able to outline its economic, social and political dimenremits and dictates of architectural practice Download With Free Trial sions, and to show that it is always directly tied to these method consists of displacing the convention conditions given both its scale of production and public study and challenging them by referring to a use. Be it the architecture of the Berber house of Kabyle from outside architecture to explain design p or the typical English terraced house of 1910, or even the tive thinking and practices. Borrowing conce particular dwelling form of the bungalow, they are all critical sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, the de-c regarded as a microcosm that reflects the macrocosm of approach of Jacques Derrida, or the archaeolo society, mimics the organization of universe, follows legal Foucault, architectural theory assumes th estate patterns and historical forces or dwelling habits and ation consists of unveiling hidden mechanism cultures. The small follows and reflects the big; architecor representations, principles and forces beh ture embraces the shapes suggested by society or culture. Thus, in order to be understood, buildings had to be located 33 See Borden and Rendell, 2000: 5. 34 See Leach, 1997. within the entire spectrum of economics, politics, so cial 35 See Tafuri, 1979; Ockman, 1985. practices and architectural theory. The same spectra were 36 See Bourdieu, 1971. 37 See Muthesius, 1982. also invited to explain the design process, the success or 38 See King, 1984. failure of architectural projects, and to elucidate why a 39 See Borden and Randell, 2000: 15. particular style emerges or vanishes at a particular moment 40 See Borden and Randell, 2000: 16. 34
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tural objects, projects, and urban developments. Yet, by tion of Koolhaas’s architecture. The commo tions of oma buildings and urban concepts i suggesting a theoretical outside from which conventional interpretations could be challenged, critical theory relied tecture and its appreciation by placing them i on the main assumption that there is a ‘social context’ in their own, disconnected from other modes o ing, from the stream of everyday design practi which architectural and urban activities take place, and living, and often arising because of extraneou which can explain their meaning and relevance. This mirror-fashioned relationship betw een architec The problem of these critical theory-ins pire ture and society has as its main assumption the notion that tions is that they start by compartmentalizin the ‘social’ is a separate domain of reality that can be used works in a niche apart, treating them as spiri as a specific type of causality to account for the ‘architecbolic, as significant, but out of touch with th tural’ aspects, and is supposed to give solidity, durability design experience. These pigeon-hole theorie and consistency to the domain of architecture which it ture arrest the specificity of a design work in cannot maintain by itself. Although it is recognized that background of the creator or the society he urban planning has its own strength and internal logic, it for. They remain sterile unless they make us a is assumed that some aspects of it would be better underto seek in concrete design works, and unless Sign to vote on thiswhich title a design work is stood if some ‘social dimensions’ and ‘social conditions’ theup conditions under were added. Although the design process unfolds under of raw materialsNot a valuable building-to-b Useful intouseful You're Reading a Preview its own logic, there are always some ‘social’ elements and native to a critical theory-inspired approach is factors to explain its unpredictable turns and difficulties. lish the connections disclosing, in pragmatic Unlock full access with a free trial. Although architectural projects develop according to their way in which these design works come 41
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Methods of MVRDV
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tural objects, projects, and urban developments. Yet, by tion of Koolhaas’s architecture. The commo tions of oma buildings and urban concepts i suggesting a theoretical outside from which conventional interpretations could be challenged, critical theory relied tecture and its appreciation by placing them i on the main assumption that there is a ‘social context’ in their own, disconnected from other modes o ing, from the stream of everyday design practi which architectural and urban activities take place, and living, and often arising because of extraneou which can explain their meaning and relevance. This mirror-fashioned relationship betw een architec The problem of these critical theory-ins pire ture and society has as its main assumption the notion that tions is that they start by compartmentalizin the ‘social’ is a separate domain of reality that can be used works in a niche apart, treating them as spiri as a specific type of causality to account for the ‘architecbolic, as significant, but out of touch with th tural’ aspects, and is supposed to give solidity, durability design experience. These pigeon-hole theorie and consistency to the domain of architecture which it ture arrest the specificity of a design work in cannot maintain by itself. Although it is recognized that background of the creator or the society he urban planning has its own strength and internal logic, it for. They remain sterile unless they make us a is assumed that some aspects of it would be better underto seek in concrete design works, and unless stood if some ‘social dimensions’ and ‘social conditions’ the conditions under which a design work is were added. Although the design process unfolds under of raw materials into a valuable building-to-b You're Reading a Preview its own logic, there are always some ‘social’ elements and native to a critical theory-inspired approach is factors to explain its unpredictable turns and difficulties. lish the connections disclosing, in pragmatic Unlock full access with a free trial. Although architectural projects develop according to their way in which these design works come own inner drives and competitive logics, some of their more the way they gain meaning in design experien puzzling aspects and the erratic behaviour of the multiunderstand the nature of architectural design Download With Free Trial tudes of actors enrolled on the way to their realization are I do not refer to the wider frameworks of Surr said to pertain to several ‘social influences’ and ‘social Modernist Movement, nor do I evoke overarc limitations’. Therefore, to explain a particular building and social contexts outside architecture. I rathe or urban concept, a critical thinker would show its en of the architectural office from the inside in trenchment in ‘the social context of its time’ and would and recount the multifarious aggregates that present it as reminiscent of the ‘political climate of an links together. The om a appears in the small époque’, of intricate power relations and economic interests. In order to elucidate the design moves and inventive 41 See King, 1980. 42 A few authors have escaped the pitfalls of a representational th impetus of architects, planners and urban developers, he architecture as possessing the power to affect people’s behaviour; or she would account for the social and political influences its role as the one of a pattern giver to society (Foucault, 1979; Eva on these ‘creators’, or reflect on the instrumental role of 1993). In a number of Foucault-inspired studies, architecture and s ‘an instrumental relationship’, and buildings are seen as mechanism architecture. power, invisible control or punishment, expressing, giving room for The ambition here is different. My purpose is not to denying or producing bonds. A growing body of recent studies on a stronger commitment to appraise and reconnect them with the sh engage in another theoretical interpretation of architecthus arguing for the conceptual weight that architecture has upon t ture, much less to argue that social conditions or cultural these institutions and the power of buildings to influence them (Heu perceptions are relevant to the perception and interpretaand Thompson, 1999). 41
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presented here as one star-like connecting site, a local place by design. As you read these lines, hundreds are about to retouch the contours of an imag where t he global, the universal values, contexts an d culrescale a model, stage a project presentation or tures are assembled and reassembled, a place where too little can be seen, but nevertheless can be well seen. ing site, build a mock-up, or negotiate with e clients. Yes, design is a trivial, banal, mun dane A lot has been written about the oma . Yet, most of the and if we want to understand the oma buildin accounts cover particular projects from the first decade of its existence 1981-91 and recall the practice’s metropolirience is to be approached with care and resp tan type of architecture. Different interpretations divide When we follow and recall mundane design, does it mean that we are assuming tha the life of the practice into ‘American’ and ‘European’ a piece of foam are always smaller than Rott periods, or ‘surrealist’ and ‘scientific’ phases of visualization. They either attempt to synthesize the oma ’s mode Porto, than Seattle or any other destination of of thinking ‘by showing all the iconographic elements Does it mean their design logics can be expla indispensable to its understanding’ or recollect Koolhaas’s ply referring to the influences upon Koolha oma own interpretations of the . Most of these accounts societies and cultures he is designing for? Be rely on interviews with the master architect, official pr begin to unravel the ontology of creativity, we Sign upwhat to vote title material produced for the om a (mainly project documention is bigon andthis what is small, what expla tation composed of final images and polished interpretais to be explained. Portuguese society high Useful NotIsuseful You're Reading a Preview tions) or the media stories. complex than a simple architectural model of Yet, no one ever attempted to spend more than a day in Musica in Porto? Can American culture explai Unlock full access with a free trial. the practice in order to see if, by chance, he or she will of the Seattle Library? Is a scale model of t 43
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Rem Koolhaas
Methods of MVRDV
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presented here as one star-like connecting site, a local place by design. As you read these lines, hundreds are about to retouch the contours of an imag where t he global, the universal values, contexts an d culrescale a model, stage a project presentation or tures are assembled and reassembled, a place where too little can be seen, but nevertheless can be well seen. ing site, build a mock-up, or negotiate with e clients. Yes, design is a trivial, banal, mun dane A lot has been written about the oma . Yet, most of the and if we want to understand the oma buildin accounts cover particular projects from the first decade of its existence 1981-91 and recall the practice’s metropolirience is to be approached with care and resp tan type of architecture. Different interpretations divide When we follow and recall mundane design, does it mean that we are assuming tha the life of the practice into ‘American’ and ‘European’ a piece of foam are always smaller than Rott periods, or ‘surrealist’ and ‘scientific’ phases of visualization. They either attempt to synthesize the oma ’s mode Porto, than Seattle or any other destination of of thinking ‘by showing all the iconographic elements Does it mean their design logics can be expla indispensable to its understanding’ or recollect Koolhaas’s ply referring to the influences upon Koolha own interpretations of the oma . Most of these accounts societies and cultures he is designing for? Be rely on interviews with the master architect, official pr begin to unravel the ontology of creativity, we material produced for the om a (mainly project documention what is big and what is small, what expla tation composed of final images and polished interpretais to be explained. Is Portuguese society high You're Reading a Preview tions) or the media stories. complex than a simple architectural model of Yet, no one ever attempted to spend more than a day in Musica in Porto? Can American culture explai Unlock full access with a free trial. the practice in order to see if, by chance, he or she will of the Seattle Library? Is a scale model of t bump into the ghost of Le Corbusier or feel the shadow of Museum in New York, taken in the repetiti Mies van der Rohe on the steep staircase connecting the scaling up and down in the oma , smaller th Download With Free Trial first and the seventh floor of the office, if he or she will society? Can it guide us to understanding Man randomly pop up among a bunch of su rrealistic images on tecture or Rem Koolhaas’s style? No, no one c the office computers, if he or she will witness the distincthere is a Zeitgeist somewhere or a culture that tive approach of a glorious screenwriter in search of the why the buildings of Koolhaas are made in th generic city, or seize the quick appearances of a flying It is not the researcher’s responsibility to de Dutchman on the way to the airpor t. No one ever believed a scale model of the library in Seattle, or the p that, in order to unravel what design means in this practice, of Hotel Astor in Rem’s office are bigger th more than an interview session with the star architect is whether American culture is the wider, over needed, more than a bunch of scenarios are to be explored side context that can explain why these oma for a project to succeed, more than a couple of public thus made. There are no pre-given explanatio images could be collected to reconstruct a sinuous project no established scales, no recognized-by-al trajectory, more than the official media story can be told frames; instead, we need to devote ethnograp about the significance of a building. No o ne assumed that 43 See Lucan, 1991. design, albeit in the office of a Pritzker prize winner, is 44 See Vidler, 1992. experience. Imagination, big ideas, stylistic influences can 45 See Lucan, 1991: p. 7. take a rest. Society and culture can wait to be reinvented 46 See Kwinter, 1996; Chaslin, 2001, Koolhaas et al., 1995. 43
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to what it means to design, to the many local arrangeations than American culture or Dutch or Ch ments from which creativity springs. And here I am, an ties. One will be led to believe that there is mo ethnographer in the oma , spending nights and days folity in these tiny operations than at the level lowing the actors in design, carefully maintaining all my building, at the level of society. The complex monad that constitutes fragments of observation (interview transcripts, images, diagrams from the group discussions). I follow designers office transcends the artificial being of any ‘su at work also because I assume that there is much more of American, Dutch, Chinese societies or cul logic in each piece of work executed by them, even in the other ‘macro’ entities. The design studio doe form a microcosm, which would explain, giv apparently insignificant and unrelated design operations such as classifying models or reusing an old and for gotten or reflect the overarching macro structures. piece of foam, than in the totality of their behaviour or universe, an entire cosmos whose distinctive f design philosophy. to unravel with ethnographic tools, whose div One ought to look at design from the inside rather than deploy in full. This implies a richer meanin observing it from a distance and gaining only a su perficial cism as that which is given to our experience view. If one follows a model or an architect in their mun James propagated. Far from striving to en Sign up to vote on this title frameworks o processes in as many contextual dane trajectories through the office, traces the small operations of recycling and reusing foam from past projects, tecture as possible, series of stories writte useful Useful Notthe You're Reading a Preview watches how a model comes into being, is reused and cirmatist fashion tackle the practices of designer their theories and their ideologies. They culated, one will be able to witness that they ar e made of a Unlock full access with a free trial. instead of going up to gain a wider panorama o much vaster collection of entities (colour shades, humans, 48
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to what it means to design, to the many local arrangeations than American culture or Dutch or Ch ments from which creativity springs. And here I am, an ties. One will be led to believe that there is mo ethnographer in the oma , spending nights and days folity in these tiny operations than at the level lowing the actors in design, carefully maintaining all my building, at the level of society. The complex monad that constitutes fragments of observation (interview transcripts, images, diagrams from the group discussions). I follow designers office transcends the artificial being of any ‘su at work also because I assume that there is much more of American, Dutch, Chinese societies or cul logic in each piece of work executed by them, even in the other ‘macro’ entities. The design studio doe form a microcosm, which would explain, giv apparently insignificant and unrelated design operations such as classifying models or reusing an old and for gotten or reflect the overarching macro structures. piece of foam, than in the totality of their behaviour or universe, an entire cosmos whose distinctive f design philosophy. to unravel with ethnographic tools, whose div One ought to look at design from the inside rather than deploy in full. This implies a richer meanin observing it from a distance and gaining only a su perficial cism as that which is given to our experience view. If one follows a model or an architect in their mun James propagated. Far from striving to en processes in as many contextual frameworks o dane trajectories through the office, traces the small operations of recycling and reusing foam from past projects, tecture as possible, the series of stories writte You're Reading a Preview watches how a model comes into being, is reused and cirmatist fashion tackle the practices of designer their theories and their ideologies. They culated, one will be able to witness that they ar e made of a Unlock full access with a free trial. instead of going up to gain a wider panorama o much vaster collection of entities (colour shades, humans, scaling instruments, angles of cutting, chunks of foam, landscapes outside architecture. This is a myop pixels and paints) than the society or culture that is meant scrutinizing to the details of architectural prac Download With Free Trial instead of taking our cue from philosoph ical to explain them. For any so-called ‘atomic’ or ‘small’ design element to be produced, the designers have to collect and creativity and trying to provide, by any mean reconsider millions of pixels and colour shades. Any stabi(social, psychological, historical or other) ex design, I intend to unravel design invention lized bunch of one-shape scale models is made of a few of everyday trajectories of models and archit smaller scale models, hundreds of material samples and thousands of scaling repetitive moves. The model that through the office space, letting themselves might initially appear to consist of simple design elements formed, leaving traces. If a project covers th step-by-step realization of an idea, a traject presents itself as a much more complex entity composed for the explorations, the discoveries, the nume of multitudes of ‘little persons’; it is much bigger, always richer in difference and complexity. If one follows its and unpredictable surprises that migh t occur trajectories ethnographically, one will discover slow and 47 As Tarde has argued ‘There is more complexity at the basis of t gradual painstaking operations of scaling, choosing a texthan at their summit.’ (see Tarde , 1999, p. 39) . ture, testing an old foam model, fine-tuning the colours, 48 See James, 1907. 49 See Yaneva, 2005, 2009; Callon, 1996; Houdart, 2006; Houdart retouching a photo, simulating shapes. One will see humans 50 This approach is inspired by the understanding of architecture and non-humans in a much mor e differentiated way, much Guattari (see Deleuze and Guattari, 1987; Guattari, 1994); for a rec richer in continuous mutations, transformations and variphilosophy of architecture inspired by these authors, see Sloterdijk 48
49
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the entire experiential dimension of the process of making of a design. It is at the same time the activation and the result of many accidental encounters. Arguing against t he preconception of design as project-making and projectrealization, the stories that follow will account for the trajectorial nature of design. To understand the meaning of oma buildings and Koolhaas’s architecture, we need to forget the architect and his building for a moment, and turn away from the official interpretations on the pages of the architectural journals or the theoretical interpretations inspired by the critical approach. We ought to ignore references to architectural theory, to society or culture as prevailing forces of explanation. We rather need to look at the ordinary forces and conditions of experience, to follow the designers in the Sign up to vote on this title office and the paths their work has traced. We must track the way their actions spread and the way architects make Useful Not useful You're Reading a Preview sense of their world-building activities, the routines, mistakes, and workaday choices usually considered of lesser full access with a free trial. importance for judging the meaning of a building. In Unlock so 51
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the entire experiential dimension of the process of making of a design. It is at the same time the activation and the result of many accidental encounters. Arguing against t he preconception of design as project-making and projectrealization, the stories that follow will account for the trajectorial nature of design. To understand the meaning of oma buildings and Koolhaas’s architecture, we need to forget the architect and his building for a moment, and turn away from the official interpretations on the pages of the architectural journals or the theoretical interpretations inspired by the critical approach. We ought to ignore references to architectural theory, to society or culture as prevailing forces of explanation. We rather need to look at the ordinary forces and conditions of experience, to follow the designers in the office and the paths their work has traced. We must track the way their actions spread and the way architects make You're Reading a Preview sense of their world-building activities, the routines, mistakes, and workaday choices usually considered of lesser full access with a free trial. importance for judging the meaning of a building. In Unlock so doing, we can arrive at a better understanding of om a ’s design by the means of a detour to design experience. The Download With Free Trial purpose is to avoid the passage through the vague notion s of society, culture, imagination, creativity, which do not explain anything but need explanation. 51
51 As design is integration of concerns of different parties, there are many other design trajectories that can be followed in an ethnography out-of-the-office. This type of approach could show how a museum model, for instance, travels and is discussed with the client, the artists, the curators, and the company that is going to run the restaurant or the shop and will incorporate all their concerns. On some of these collaborations, see Yaneva, 2009, chapter 3, pp. 151-9.
Voices
What Is So Special About OMA?
Before showing you around, before tracing trajectories of architects and models at the to let you hear the voices of some oma archite upon the specificity of design in th is office. ‘What is it that makes oma specific, differen architectural offices?’ This was a question I times and at various moments during the dev the projects I followed. I will let different arch Sho, Olga, Ole, Carol, Alain and Rem; and I w them briefly. Tracing the pr ofiles of the ar viewed in 2002-04, while briefly sketching the in 2009, is like going back in time and transver Sign to vote on this theup series of events andtitle om a projects they w in, thus gainingNot of the extent to whic useful Useful a sense You're Reading a Preview implicated in the life of the office at the time It allows me to formulate retrospectively ho Unlock full access with a free trial. their work was for the collective projects sta
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What Is So Special About OMA?
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Before showing you around, before tracing trajectories of architects and models at the to let you hear the voices of some oma archite upon the specificity of design in th is office. ‘What is it that makes oma specific, differen architectural offices?’ This was a question I times and at various moments during the dev the projects I followed. I will let different arch Sho, Olga, Ole, Carol, Alain and Rem; and I w them briefly. Tracing the pr ofiles of the ar viewed in 2002-04, while briefly sketching the in 2009, is like going back in time and transver the series of events and om a projects they w in, thus gaining a sense of the extent to whic You're Reading a Preview implicated in the life of the office at the time It allows me to formulate retrospectively ho Unlock full access with a free trial. their work was for the collective projects sta and how these projects reciprocally shaped the trajectories. Download With Free Trial Let us start with Rem’s voice: ‘Architecture is very flexible and almost e possible except flocking the building in th way, if you really want to do it, you office.’ Then we have Shohei Shigematsu. I initially he was in volved in the Whitney project, but chance to follow his work on other projects interviews with him on a variety of topics re oma design approach and ongoing projects. Shohei Shigematsu joined the Office for M Architecture in 1998. In 2008 he became a p 53
52 Other architects are also mentioned in the stories: Markus Dett Gibson, Gabriela Bojalil, Abjihit and Victoria, but they will not be in I will not refer extensively to the interviews with them to develop the 53 Interview with Rem, April 2002, OMA.
32
oma Holding company while still director of the oma * am o New York office. As such, h e oversees oma ’s operations in
see. But I don’t think that Rem excludes th of using computers or whatever. It’s just ha this moment computers are still not goo North America and is in charge of Cornell University’s new building for the College of Architecture, Art and make really quick studies. It’s also a matter if you can make really suggestive 3-d comp Planning in Ithaca, ny , a mixed-use high-rise building in of course everybody w ill think it’s good. Y Jersey City, nj , and a residential tower with caa (Creative strong enough to promote your method. Artist Agency) screening roo m on 23 East 22nd Street in ay: Do you think the models in the oma Manhattan, among other projects. by another tool? He was project leader of winning design competitions sho : They could be. For me it’s already very such as the cctv Headquarters in Beijing, the Koning Julianaplein mixed-use building in The Hague and the maybe… Yes, if you do such a study, I ca Shenzhen Stock Exchange building. He has been a driving doing it by a computer. Maybe some peop ay: And what is the role of the other tools li force in conceptual projects such as the Universal Headdiagrams, and drawings in the design pr quarters in Los Angeles, the Whitney Museum Extension oma ? in New York, the Tokyo vertical campus, the China Sign up: That’s to vote this title theon specificity of this office – sho National Museum and Prada Epicenters for Shanghai and charade, youNot a really big brainstorm London. Useful makeuseful You're Reading a Preview try to obtain a really clear idea from it. And ay: Tell me something more about the specificity of the work in the oma . How would you compare this archiby using very clear diagrams so that almo Unlock full access with a free trial. can immediately see what our intention tecture practice with other offices?
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see. But I don’t think that Rem excludes th of using computers or whatever. It’s just ha this moment computers are still not goo North America and is in charge of Cornell University’s new building for the College of Architecture, Art and make really quick studies. It’s also a matter if you can make really suggestive 3-d comp Planning in Ithaca, ny , a mixed-use high-rise building in of course everybody w ill think it’s good. Y Jersey City, nj , and a residential tower with caa (Creative strong enough to promote your method. Artist Agency) screening roo m on 23 East 22nd Street in ay: Do you think the models in the oma Manhattan, among other projects. by another tool? He was project leader of winning design competitions sho : They could be. For me it’s already very such as the cctv Headquarters in Beijing, the Koning Julianaplein mixed-use building in The Hague and the maybe… Yes, if you do such a study, I ca Shenzhen Stock Exchange building. He has been a driving doing it by a computer. Maybe some peop ay: And what is the role of the other tools li force in conceptual projects such as the Universal Headdiagrams, and drawings in the design pr quarters in Los Angeles, the Whitney Museum Extension oma ? in New York, the Tokyo vertical campus, the China sho : That’s the specificity of this office – National Museum and Prada Epicenters for Shanghai and London. You're Reading a Preview charade, you make a really big brainstorm try to obtain a really clear idea from it. And ay: Tell me something more about the specificity of the work in the oma . How would you compare this archiby using very clear diagrams so that almo Unlock full access with a free trial. can immediately see what our intention tecture practice with other offices? achieve something. So, often our diagram sho : I came here after I graduated. I haven’t worked in other offices. But of course you get to know how the different from those in computer-orient Download With Free Trial We use very naïve diagrams almost other offices work through friends and the specificity children’s books. We also spend a lot of ti lies in doing something like this [he points to the models ing books, which is also part of the presen around him and takes the model of the cctv building] and taking these models seriously, trying to analyse the rials. There is also an element of clarifyin ourselves. (…) What is may be interestin intention and always trying to look for new and interthat this office is quite ambitious and we esting ideas out of very naïve-like models. I’m sure that pose what we want to do. It’s interesting some architects can laugh when they look at this, but we are pretty ser ious in analysing what is really good long that ambition lasts during the design ay: You mean how long you are going to kee and what is bad, and we try to create new things. We tion? do not think in terms of: ‘ok , this is not impossible, sho : No, we always remain ambitious, but so this is possible, we are just experimenting, expressing’. client is not entirely convinced, sometime ay: Are the models the best tool for thinking and conductis not enough, sometimes it’s just too d ing experiments on the building? sometimes we have to drop things and ch sho : I don’t think so. Of course in the architectural part of the oma , it’s like traditional. And also it is faster, it be and reduce the complexity of the project. case, what is interesting is not the thin comes more suggestive, you can touch, you can really
34
dropped, but the ones that remain. Because if they ask: banal, he can say: ‘Look at this artist, I w him as building.’ It’s really no problem for ‘Can we cut this part here?’, of course we are going to say: ‘No’. This is one of the things we can never drop. enjoy these kinds of things. Basically there But however this process makes you drop several aspects ventions, like material, or even formal this is something that is really nice in this of the initial design bit by bit; the ones that remain are we had this kind of period when we starte those that we think are really important. Another architect, Alain Fouraux, known among the other that we are always going in the opposite di architects as the ‘artist’, provided me with a lot of inforintuition, so we were really experimenti mation about the design process in the oma . I held a series own minds, by simply designing and thi of interviews with him on a number of projects he has how it could work. We always end up by d worked on. thing beautiful. That’s really nice as compa At the age of 14, Alain Fouraux started his professional offices. career in creative disciplines parallel to his education – There were very few women in the office. Ol radio advertising, painting, sculpture, video productions, was one of them. She devoted a lot of her time animations and product design. Alain found a way to tions and shared both moments of excitemen Sign up to vote on this title channel his rapidly expanding interest in the field of archipointment. tecture and urban design, leading him to become one of Olga Aleksakova graduated in 1998 with Useful Not useful You're Reading a Preview the main concept designers at the oma where he has been from Delft University of Technology. She w years at the oma on Universal Headquarters in responsible for many landmark designs. He is the main Unlock full access with a free trial. designer of the Times Museum, Guangzhou, in conjunc Almere Masterplan, Cinema and sh opping c
Sheet Music
oma Holding company while still director of the oma * am o New York office. As such, h e oversees oma ’s operations in
54
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dropped, but the ones that remain. Because if they ask: banal, he can say: ‘Look at this artist, I w him as building.’ It’s really no problem for ‘Can we cut this part here?’, of course we are going to say: ‘No’. This is one of the things we can never drop. enjoy these kinds of things. Basically there But however this process makes you drop several aspects ventions, like material, or even formal this is something that is really nice in this of the initial design bit by bit; the ones that remain are we had this kind of period when we starte those that we think are really important. Another architect, Alain Fouraux, known among the other that we are always going in the opposite di architects as the ‘artist’, provided me with a lot of inforintuition, so we were really experimenti mation about the design process in the oma . I held a series own minds, by simply designing and thi of interviews with him on a number of projects he has how it could work. We always end up by d worked on. thing beautiful. That’s really nice as compa At the age of 14, Alain Fouraux started his professional offices. career in creative disciplines parallel to his education – There were very few women in the office. Ol radio advertising, painting, sculpture, video productions, was one of them. She devoted a lot of her time animations and product design. Alain found a way to tions and shared both moments of excitemen channel his rapidly expanding interest in the field of archipointment. tecture and urban design, leading him to become one of You're Reading a Preview Olga Aleksakova graduated in 1998 with the main concept designers at the oma where he has been from Delft University of Technology. She w years at the oma on Universal Headquarters in responsible for many landmark designs. He is the main Unlock full access with a free trial. designer of the Times Museum, Guangzhou, in conjunc Almere Masterplan, Cinema and sh opping c 6 in Almere, Whitney Museum in New York tion with Rem Koolhaas. ala in : I am a native Dutchman, so I really wanted to get Museum in Los Angeles. She was a project Download With Free Trial out of Holland and start creating my own stuff. AnyFlick museum in Zurich, the Hermitage exten where would do. At the beginning I worked as a designer Petersburg, and Krost Masterplan for Quarte on Prada, at the start of the schematic design, and I cow. She is currently a partner of Buromosco olga : We often joke: we say that we have two worked in New York and San Francisco basically. And then I worked on the Astor Hotel, also at the comNike lines: om a classic and oma swoos mencement of the project. Then the lacma , and the swoosh comprises projects like porto last competition was Amsterdam. Now we are starting is when the form is much more express classic. Seattle is almost the end of oma the cctv project, and I don’t have so much to say about this. you look at Cordoba, it’s all new line. It can (…) Certainly, the most important thing that I’ve learned it can be a diagram. In the Oslo project here, and this is the thing I have to be grateful to this strange shape line of the site. So, we to office for, is that it liberates you from any kind of forgramme as secure and we put it on the site mal language and media language. Especially since I’ve the future programme. So, that’s why you done so many different kinds of concepts in such a short time. I have never had problems with style or anyth ing. 54 Interview with Sho, April 2002, OMA. If Rem asks me something, even if it is something 55 Interview with Alain, April 2002, OMA. 54
55
36
to go back and forth, checking repeatedly. Is it still the thing. It shows the ideas and also the con the concept models show the ideas that same diagram? Do the programme and the shape still fit together, or are they readable as separate entities? express. (…) The computer is the worst; i At the end you have to sell it again. And if people see time. cctv has these computer-generated we call renderings. It’s easier to have them that it doesn’t work, they are not convinced. That was it’s just a model in th e city, that’s easier. Bu the strength of the Seattle project, because no w we can explain it in three sentences, and you can argue about say that we don’t use the computer; we us its aesthetics but its logic is so strong t hat people buy it all the time. But we do not use computer Purely because it’s more time consuming. even if they don’t like the form. (…) I think that there are different ways of considering it. There is a split in the need people who know how to do it, how office. The older generation are more for the classic software. So, we need to generate a com line than for the swoosh line. For example, the people manpower function in the office somehow there are people who know how to do it, from the older gen eration don’t like Whitney, because to them it’s just a shape, but I think it’s so beautiful that more time. These things are too standard Ole Scheeren was the first person they can’t imagine it. Rem intro Sign uphetoremained vote onmy this titlecontact person thr Erez Ella was my main interviewee on the Whitney project, and main but he also helped greatly in getting acquainted with the duration of my Not study. I was in regular Useful entireuseful You're Reading a Preview office routines and I learned a lot fr om him. Ole, who informed me about different offic Erez Ella is an Israeli architect who joined the oma in project developments; most of my interviews Unlock full access with a free trial. his glass office. 1999. As an Associate at om a Rotterdam and oma New 56
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Rem Koolhaas
Methods of MVRDV
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to go back and forth, checking repeatedly. Is it still the thing. It shows the ideas and also the con the concept models show the ideas that same diagram? Do the programme and the shape still fit together, or are they readable as separate entities? express. (…) The computer is the worst; i At the end you have to sell it again. And if people see time. cctv has these computer-generated we call renderings. It’s easier to have them that it doesn’t work, they are not convinced. That was it’s just a model in th e city, that’s easier. Bu the strength of the Seattle project, because no w we can explain it in three sentences, and you can argue about say that we don’t use the computer; we us its aesthetics but its logic is so strong t hat people buy it all the time. But we do not use computer Purely because it’s more time consuming. even if they don’t like the form. (…) I think that there are different ways of considering it. There is a split in the need people who know how to do it, how office. The older generation are more for the classic software. So, we need to generate a com line than for the swoosh line. For example, the people manpower function in the office somehow there are people who know how to do it, from the older gen eration don’t like Whitney, because to them it’s just a shape, but I think it’s so beautiful that more time. These things are too standard Ole Scheeren was the first person Rem intro they can’t imagine it. Erez Ella was my main interviewee on the Whitney project, and he remained my main contact person thr but he also helped greatly in getting acquainted with the duration of my entire study. I was in regular You're Reading a Preview office routines and I learned a lot fr om him. Ole, who informed me about different offic Erez Ella is an Israeli architect who joined the oma in project developments; most of my interviews Unlock full access with a free trial. his glass office. 1999. As an Associate at om a Rotterdam and oma New York he worked on the Whitney Museum of American Ole Scheeren joined Rem Koolhaas and Art in New York, the Television Cultural Center for China and became a partner in 2002. Since 1999 Download With Free Trial Central Television ( cctv) in Beijing, the Los Angeles oma ’s work for Prada and completed the Prad County Museum of Art (lacma ), Museum Plaza in Louisin New York City ( 2001) and Los Angeles ( ville, Kentucky, the Dee & Charles Wyly Theatre in Dalled numerous other projects, including the B las, Texas and the new headquarters for Vakko in Istanbul. building, the Los Angeles County Museum He is now based in New York City and is the co-founder Leeum Cultural Center in Seoul, and a b of rex in collaboration with Joshua Prince-Ramus. In Penang Island, Malaysia. He is now director 2006 the two architects turned oma ’s New York office into terdam and om a Beijing and in char ge of the Ramus Ella Architects, or re x, and took over several across Asia. As partner-in-charge of oma American oma commissions. to date, he is leading the design and constru erez: The particularity of this studio is that w hatever you China Central Television Station cctv and th want to do you can do it. And it is more appropriate for Cultural Center ( tvcc) in Beijing. the design and for your ideas. For example, we have ole : We are also not an office that really desi concrete materials for nato and it was necessary to puters. We use computers for production have solid and other materials. So, you use materials that you think are appropriate, and again it’s like a 56 Interview with Olga, October 2002, OMA. sketch but it’s a model. The sketch doesn’t show every57 Interview with Erez, November 2002, OMA. 56
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resentational work, but not actually for the design work. mentioned, this numeric vector-based, flu We have not started to explore the numeric space. The like vocabulary that has developed, based o offices that have done that have ended up with a style opment of computers and numeric space. of blob and fluidity that I am not sure if it’s the accurate time, I think that the actual social or soc cultural understanding of the work is, to me, answer to numeric space and vector-related descriptions of space. In that sense we are very modern, not less contemporary than many of the thin contemporary, but very modern or a very old office, themselves on a certain style that predict very old in our techniques and ways of working. rariness in itself. I think that we are totally non-artistic offic ay: When you said modern I was thinking about the classification of the oma ’s style as super-modern style way. I think that our approach is a muc [according to na i’s classification]. What do you think grammatic or pragmatic one. Let’s see, in Whitney, the fact that it produced this ve about that? You are already in the history of architecture styles, and you have been labelled ‘super/ultraprefer to call it sculptural rather than artist modern’ architects. sculptural shape was not based on the fac ole : Super-modern? This is extreme! actually a museum, or something related Sign up to vote on this rational sense, that title might have driven u ay: This is bizarre because, according to Rem’s writings, your work should be regarded as being situated in a any artistic approach. And again lacma Useful Not useful You're Reading a Preview non-modern rather than super-modern tradition. example, because lacma is a very pragmat we talked about the infra-structural aspect ole : [Silence] So, I am not the person who can give you an Unlock full access with a free trial. accurate answer to that. Although I would like to say I think that Whitney developed into th 58
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Methods of MVRDV
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resentational work, but not actually for the design work. mentioned, this numeric vector-based, flu We have not started to explore the numeric space. The like vocabulary that has developed, based o offices that have done that have ended up with a style opment of computers and numeric space. of blob and fluidity that I am not sure if it’s the accurate time, I think that the actual social or soc cultural understanding of the work is, to me, answer to numeric space and vector-related descriptions of space. In that sense we are very modern, not less contemporary than many of the thin contemporary, but very modern or a very old office, themselves on a certain style that predict very old in our techniques and ways of working. rariness in itself. I think that we are totally non-artistic offic ay: When you said modern I was thinking about the classification of the oma ’s style as super-modern style way. I think that our approach is a muc [according to na i’s classification]. What do you think grammatic or pragmatic one. Let’s see, in Whitney, the fact that it produced this ve about that? You are already in the history of architecture styles, and you have been labelled ‘super/ultraprefer to call it sculptural rather than artist modern’ architects. sculptural shape was not based on the fac ole : Super-modern? This is extreme! actually a museum, or something related rational sense, that might have driven u ay: This is bizarre because, according to Rem’s writings, your work should be regarded as being situated in a And again lacma You're Reading a Preview any artistic approach. non-modern rather than super-modern tradition. example, because lacma is a very pragmat we talked about the infra-structural aspect ole : [Silence] So, I am not the person who can give you an Unlock full access with a free trial. I think that Whitney developed into th accurate answer to that. Although I would like to say one thing. I really have strong doubts as to whether the shape and object of weirdness simply be sense of the contemporary or the modern really implies givens of the project were so absurd in the Download With Free Trial they necessarily produced an absurd answer anything related to the kind of stylistic judgment that is usually made. I am not actually sure why our archiin a sculptural shape, taking into account tecture is qualified or classified as super-modern, and situation, the programme, the history. Bu not as contemporary. I also wonder what would be time I don’t want to pretend that ther e wo formula or a logical conclusion in architec actually qualified as contemporary in this case. And how is something like Frank Gehry’s architecture more think that anything in architecture in that contemporary in its understanding or maybe in its logical, and can be derived from that, ther answer. usability? So, there are so many levels and layers of actually reading and describing architecture. You can I think Seattle was also really a question of n go into stylistic one, into a sculptural one, into a prois a library, but also of what is a library today and communication age, how a library has to re grammatic one, into a representational one, and maybe It is not so mu ch about the new, but more ab even one of social and political awareness, one of mediarelated effects. And then, all these things might look ality of a programme and the understandin slightly different. But I think what distinguishes our architecture is probably that its formal aspects are very 58 Interview with Ole, November 2002, OMA. 59 Interview with Ole, November 2002, OMA. much based on the modern vocabulary rather than, as I 58
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implies as a transformation. Rather than a new idea, we try always be as clear as possible, as understan to generate profound understanding of the programme or sible in a very short way, rather then ne typology in the actual context now. explanations. ay: So, it is not about designing for the future? If you look at the cctv. There were some were very abstract in a way and they were ole : Yes, it is about current ideas, about actuality. There is a lot of sense of the present in every case. And at the very beautiful. And they were b eautiful. E same time I think that every project does deal with the the beginning the intention was to f ollow future, because it accepts and maybe sometimes even requirements of the competition, which m thematizes the knowledge of an almost unpredictable scale and a small-scale model. And they refuture change to happen. And it questions the kind of thing and they made the large scale model change that can be allowed for and accommodated . and the small-scale model very detailed. E Carol Patterson was the Whitney project manager and I the judges knew that it was probably the win was in regular contact with her for the Whitney project. the abstract was just too abstract and they aia Carol graduated and was awarded the Gold Medal understand the beauty in there. Perhaps at the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently and all these politicians, but inthe making Sign up to vote on this title And again that’s Project Manager at the oma . She was the project manager model they were realistic. of major oma projects such as the lacma extension and of seducing clients with models. So, who ca Useful Not useful You're Reading a Preview the extension to the Whitney Museum of American Art. with this? You can only seduce with an abs Previously to that she worked as a senior architect at Arup If you get through the details you start th Unlock full access with a free trial. Advanced Geometry Unit and was Associate at Rogers too many angles of the thing, and that pro 61
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implies as a transformation. Rather than a new idea, we try always be as clear as possible, as understan to generate profound understanding of the programme or sible in a very short way, rather then ne typology in the actual context now. explanations. ay: So, it is not about designing for the future? If you look at the cctv. There were some were very abstract in a way and they were ole : Yes, it is about current ideas, about actuality. There is a lot of sense of the present in every case. And at the very beautiful. And they were b eautiful. E same time I think that every project does deal with the the beginning the intention was to f ollow future, because it accepts and maybe sometimes even requirements of the competition, which m thematizes the knowledge of an almost unpredictable scale and a small-scale model. And they refuture change to happen. And it questions the kind of thing and they made the large scale model change that can be allowed for and accommodated . and the small-scale model very detailed. E Carol Patterson was the Whitney project manager and I the judges knew that it was probably the win was in regular contact with her for the Whitney project. the abstract was just too abstract and they Carol graduated and was awarded the aia Gold Medal understand the beauty in there. Perhaps at the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently and all these politicians, but in the making Project Manager at the oma . She was the project manager model they were realistic. And again that’s of major oma projects such as the lacma extension and You're Reading a Preview of seducing clients with models. So, who ca the extension to the Whitney Museum of American Art. with this? You can only seduce with an abs Previously to that she worked as a senior architect at Arup If you get through the details you start th Unlock full access with a free trial. too many angles of the thing, and that pro Advanced Geometry Unit and was Associate at Rogers Marvel Architects. details. But to a lot of our clients, ‘realisti carol: I think that there is always a way of describing a they can imagine something. So we need t Download With Free Trial ance of how you can make something b project that is completely rational, even if the project itself may look not so rational. Generally they are really seductive, and at the same time imaginable rational. Because you go through a period of research, Kunlé Adeyemi was one of the young archit in the Whitney team. He allowed me to follow we get back and everything is done. You have to do so much research before you get your point. Sometimes slow and painstaking design operations. research may come out after the fact, because you do Kunlé Adeyemi joined the oma in 2002 Associate of oma , he is presently in charge o something, you like it, but you want to justify it or verify that what you are doing is correct. So you make a backgoing projects: the Qatar Foundation Headq up and make sure that your back-up information supCentral Library and the Strategic Studies C ports the idea. So a lot of it is just a rational way of the Education City in Doha, the new Headqu for the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in Chin explaining something. This does not necessarily mean that someone likes this project, but it’s actually incredpavilion project in South Korea and, most r ibly reasonable in terms of what they had given us to work with. It’s like ‘Oh, perfect, it makes perfect sense’. 60 Interview with Ole, September 2002, OMA. But I think you need all that background information 61 Interview with Carol, April 2002, OMA. to understand why it makes so much sense. And it should 62 Interview with Carol, October 2002, OMA. 61
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4th Mainland bridge and blueprint project in Lagos,
And here is the voice of an external architect came from the firm dbb (Davis Brody Bon Nigeria. City based firm providing expertise in archite kunlé: Generally speaking, the more things we do, the better it is. Of course at the same time this means more ning, programming, preservation, interiors, and collaborative services). He spent a coupl resources and time consumption. I believe that, at this working on the Whitney project in oma , Rot level of practice, this is a sort of extravagance we have ay: Do you like working at the oma ? right now. Otherwise we cannot move towards perfec ab ji : Yes, yes it’s nice. It’s a very informal tion. Because design is not exactly linear. And we have very r elaxing s ometimes. An d we have a to do something new, it requires much more time. There You can’t do so many things in the city of are a lot of ways, and in the options you can find the solutions. You can find totally different objectives in the In New York there are so many things hap local options. Some options are so stupid and standard, can go out in the city; you know there things happening and you want to experie but occasionally in the routine you think ‘Oh, there is culturally. Here, there is nothing. I go hom something interesting’. It can be applied to many things we do here, models and drawings. And we start times I don’t have dinner like for two day Sign up to vote this title Everything i work duringonthe evenings. to analyse these options and evaluate them, and come I don’t have time to do shopping. to a final result. The more you can realize, the better it Useful ay Not useful You're Reading a Preview is. Nothing should be wasted. : That’s how everybody works here? ay: How do you distinguish the goo d models from the bad ab ji : Yes, we even w ork in the weekends, but Unlock full access with a free trial. models? Which models do you consider as good? good atmosphere. 63
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4th Mainland bridge and blueprint project in Lagos,
And here is the voice of an external architect came from the firm dbb (Davis Brody Bon Nigeria. City based firm providing expertise in archite kunlé: Generally speaking, the more things we do, the better it is. Of course at the same time this means more ning, programming, preservation, interiors, and collaborative services). He spent a coupl resources and time consumption. I believe that, at this working on the Whitney project in oma , Rot level of practice, this is a sort of extravagance we have ay: Do you like working at the oma ? right now. Otherwise we cannot move towards perfec ab ji : Yes, yes it’s nice. It’s a very informal tion. Because design is not exactly linear. And we have very r elaxing s ometimes. An d we have a to do something new, it requires much more time. There You can’t do so many things in the city of are a lot of ways, and in the options you can find the solutions. You can find totally different objectives in the In New York there are so many things hap local options. Some options are so stupid and standard, can go out in the city; you know there things happening and you want to experie but occasionally in the routine you think ‘Oh, there is culturally. Here, there is nothing. I go hom something interesting’. It can be applied to many things we do here, models and drawings. And we start times I don’t have dinner like for two day work during the evenings. Everything i to analyse these options and evaluate them, and come I don’t have time to do shopping. to a final result. The more you can realize, the better it You're Reading a Preview ay: That’s how everybody works here? is. Nothing should be wasted. ay: How do you distinguish the goo d models from the bad ab ji : Yes, we even w ork in the weekends, but models? Which models do you consider as good? Unlock full access with a free trial. good atmosphere. kunlé: Ohhh. I find it very difficult to say that it’s a bad ay: Do you see some important d ifferences in model, you know. You could have a model that is not of this office and your office in ny c? Download With Free Trial really successful in illustrating a specific idea or point. ab ji : Yes, I see lots of differences. We do ma Perhaps in that sense you could say that it’s a bad model. dbb , but we don’t primarily use models a But apart from that, it’s difficult to justify the logic of studying the impact of t he design. We don what makes up good or bad architecture. But the good every day. There will be one person that doe model is one that succeeds in illustrating some ideas. of all the ideas, you know. At the same tim Perhaps everybody in the team will find some model 3-d studies going o n side by side. It’s a par distasteful or not very nice. And that model suddenly it’s not a linear process. At the oma one sto becomes the most important model to somebody who begins, one infor ms the other. It’s side by s can see some potential in it, an idea. So, in that sense, do it at dbb but it’s not so advanced, becaus I’m always very sensible when judging whether it’s good are different. We also take part in compe or bad. Sometimes the things that are more grotesque nature of the client determines to a large e or perhaps the more repugnant models may have some what the process is going to look like.’ interesting qualities on closer inspection. It all depends ay: There is an overproduction it seems to m on who is evaluating it and h ow he or she is able to explore the opportunities in the model, the resources. But 63 Interview with Kunlé, June 2002, OMA. of course we do have some very uninteresting models. 64 Interview with Kunlé, September 2002, OMA. 63
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One Month Without Models! him]. I cannot compare this to another office, but that’s my impression. ab ji : Yes, an overproduction also because of the n ature of the work. Because the oma is really looking for a higher Waiting fo r Ole, I was staring at the mod around when Ole entered the office, breathl level of theoretical input in the pro ject. Every architect can do the project in accordance with the client’s re last meeting. Without waiting for him to s quirements. That’s what the competitions are about. make himself comfortable for an interview s But oma wants to go a step further in terms of really glass office, I asked a question: ay: How many models are usually generated original ideas, pushing the local context, thinking about architecture. It is not simply about bu ilding something, of a project? ole : We obviously start with the conceptual m the programme and the shape, but it’s also about what building and it can easily go until, I don’t architecture can bring culturally, it’s about thinking differently. Therefore, you have to start looking exclumodels. All the models that you see here sively at more visual production. A new concept is im same project. I mean, there are not many n portant, but you also have to have a lot of information probably 12 models on the shelves but this Sign up to vote titlehas already left th point when on thethis project to back it up, you know. Listening to these voices we can outline two distinctive most of theseNot have to disappear, so t useful Useful things You're Reading a Preview features of the process at the oma . First, invention hapa big quantity of things. (…) At the same t pens in the process of ‘taking models seriously’, experihave so much work with this experimenta Unlock full access with a free trial. menting and expressing by means of models, and using a decided to apply a new strategy and simpl 65
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One Month Without Models! him]. I cannot compare this to another office, but that’s my impression. ab ji : Yes, an overproduction also because of the n ature of the work. Because the oma is really looking for a higher Waiting fo r Ole, I was staring at the mod around when Ole entered the office, breathl level of theoretical input in the pro ject. Every architect can do the project in accordance with the client’s re last meeting. Without waiting for him to s quirements. That’s what the competitions are about. make himself comfortable for an interview s But oma wants to go a step further in terms of really glass office, I asked a question: ay: How many models are usually generated original ideas, pushing the local context, thinking about architecture. It is not simply about bu ilding something, of a project? ole : We obviously start with the conceptual m the programme and the shape, but it’s also about what building and it can easily go until, I don’t architecture can bring culturally, it’s about thinking differently. Therefore, you have to start looking exclumodels. All the models that you see here sively at more visual production. A new concept is im same project. I mean, there are not many n portant, but you also have to have a lot of information probably 12 models on the shelves but this point when the project has already left th to back it up, you know. Listening to these voices we can outline two distinctive You're Reading a Preview most of these things have to disappear, so t features of the process at the oma . First, invention hapa big quantity of things. (…) At the same t pens in the process of ‘taking models seriously’, experihave so much work with this experimenta full access with a free trial. decided to apply a new strategy and simpl menting and expressing by means of models, and usingUnlock a variety of other tools in original ways. The work with modmethods and the means by wh ich the offic els is at the basis of novelty and innovation. New insights just had a conversation with Rem this mor Download With Free Trial decided not to allow any blue foam any and building shapes emerge from a charade of visuals and the environment in the office. It is a foam – rather than a office for a month, to substitute making w computer – office. Second, the office ‘liberates’ architects and to force people to first think what the from any kind of formal and media language; there are no instead of producing some rough quanti conventions that would restrict invention. and slowly find something that would wor To further understand the foam-s pecificity of the oma This experimental ‘one month without mode pened. Was it because it appeared to be a diffi and question the architects’ attachment to models, I conducted a little test. oma architects to ‘substitute making with thin the head architect ‘to force people to first thin 65 Interview with Abjihit, June 2002, OMA. want to do instead of producing some rough 66 While the significance of the architectural drawing is largely discussed, the role trials and slowly find something that would of models in design practice has seldom been tackled in the design literature (see Akiko, 1991; Bonfilio, 2000; Porter and Neale, 2000). was it because architects simply cannot making, and whatever the experiment is lau could stick to alternative schemes of design th 65
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temporarily. As the time passed, my disappointment grew and only models enable him to see things in se as I was hoping to witness a breach of the routines in this wants to see the model and where exactly we office and to be able to recount the mechanisms of design ing tower, for instance. It’s easier with the mo making that a breach in everyday practice can reveal. can demonstrate everything in few seconds, than with a sketch.’ Olga also commented o I questioned the architects on numerous occasions about the experimental ‘one month without models’. Impatient sibility of the office working without models: to see it taking place and to report its results, I tested their cannot work without models and foam. It’s readiness to follow the guidance of the master architect Rem was just bored with a lot of blue foam p told us not to use blue foam, but white foam without making it a central point of discussion. I often mentioned the question in an innocent way in the middle couldn’t see blue foam anymore. And then, of an interview: ‘By the way, Rem and Ole are planning to was so difficult to find in Netherlands, problem. And then, we had to spray the blu conduct an experiment consisting of ‘one month without…’. What do you think about it? I used the intention ridiculous.’ of the chief-architects to set up this ‘one month without Very few architects commented on the exp models’ experiment as a way to open up both the ro utines challenge that could have positive effects, an Sign up to vote on this titleone of the best qu pened it would only outline of interview making and the designers’ routine experiences. oma : ‘Yes, why not? Alain recalls the moment of Rem’s decision: ‘I remember think that you can always Useful NotI useful You're Reading a Preview Rem was getting a little bit sick from the whole production approach easily, and it’s just a matter of attit that is also the quality of this office, we often of options and models, I think that there is a new drift to Unlock full access with a free trial. attitude. We were doing less research, before d reduce models a little bit.’ Commenting on the experiment 71
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temporarily. As the time passed, my disappointment grew and only models enable him to see things in se as I was hoping to witness a breach of the routines in this wants to see the model and where exactly we office and to be able to recount the mechanisms of design ing tower, for instance. It’s easier with the mo making that a breach in everyday practice can reveal. can demonstrate everything in few seconds, than with a sketch.’ Olga also commented o I questioned the architects on numerous occasions about the experimental ‘one month without models’. Impatient sibility of the office working without models: to see it taking place and to report its results, I tested their cannot work without models and foam. It’s readiness to follow the guidance of the master architect Rem was just bored with a lot of blue foam p told us not to use blue foam, but white foam without making it a central point of discussion. I often mentioned the question in an innocent way in the middle couldn’t see blue foam anymore. And then, of an interview: ‘By the way, Rem and Ole are planning to was so difficult to find in Netherlands, problem. And then, we had to spray the blu conduct an experiment consisting of ‘one month without…’. What do you think about it? I used the intention ridiculous.’ of the chief-architects to set up this ‘one month without Very few architects commented on the exp models’ experiment as a way to open up both the ro utines challenge that could have positive effects, an pened it would only outline one of the best qu of interview making and the designers’ routine experiences. oma : ‘Yes, why not? I think that you can always Alain recalls the moment of Rem’s decision: ‘I remember You're Reading a Preview Rem was getting a little bit sick from the whole production approach easily, and it’s just a matter of attit that is also the quality of this office, we often of options and models, I think that there is a new drift to Unlock full access with a free trial. attitude. We were doing less research, before d reduce models a little bit.’ Commenting on the experiment Carol said: ‘I think it would definitely be an interesting to be more intuition-based. This new trend sta experiment. I think some people are better in drawing, Porto building. And then the Astor Hotel w Download With Free Trial others are better in thinking with models.’ Just like Carol, based mostly on scientific research.’ other architects qualified the experiment as interesting and I soon understood why this experiment c challenging, but did not engage in detailed reflection on place at the oma in spite of the fact that Ole an its conditions of possibility or its eventual consequences. strongly committed to revolutionizing the offi To understand the use of the models in the studio, I The architects at oma think by making and re was constantly deploying the intention of Rem and Ole to els, by packing models in boxes and moving try to unravel, from their reactions, the models’ role and ground floor, by staging models for presenta practical meaning at the oma . When I told Erez and Sarah culating them within the networks of design. about the ‘one month without models’ experiment, they cannot substitute making with pure thinking. were amazed. They said: ‘It’s not possible to work without And, her e I am, an anthropologist of arc models, you can have drawings and diagrams, but with the model you can visualize the thing in few seconds.’ They 68 Interview with Alain, 17 April 2002. also thought that it will be more difficult for Rem to stick 69 Interview with Carol, 22 April 2002. 70 Discussion with Sarah and Erez, 10 April 2002. to the experimental protocol. Erez even argued that: ‘This 71 Interview with Erez, November 2002, OMA. is almost impossible in this office. It won’t happen. Because 72 Interview with Olga, April 2002, OMA. Rem always wants to see the last changes on a project fast 73 Interview with Alain, April 2002, OMA. 71
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tempting to answer the questions that resonated in all the architectural voices: How does the everyday making of things – mainly foam models – in an architectural office evolve into a form of making that is genuinely of a design nature? How can cutting foam, experimenting with materials and shapes, retouching an image with Photoshop or sketching things on tracing paper give rise to something admirable, something that sparks the architects, and talks back to them, something that will trouble them and consume their energy through the course of the design, something that will compel and surpass its maker? How do everyday making, experimentation and enjoyment of design develop into a specific architectural understanding of design?
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tempting to answer the questions that resonated in all the architectural voices: How does the everyday making of things – mainly foam models – in an architectural office evolve into a form of making that is genuinely of a design nature? How can cutting foam, experimenting with materials and shapes, retouching an image with Photoshop or sketching things on tracing paper give rise to something admirable, something that sparks the architects, and talks back to them, something that will trouble them and consume their energy through the course of the design, something that will compel and surpass its maker? How do everyday making, experimentation and enjoyment of design develop into a specific architectural understanding of design?
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Stories
The Dance
From bubbles to rhythms
Foam is everywhere – on the shelves, on the table of models, in the kitchen. ‘It is very c Rem. I follow the work of the architects, draw computers, cutting the foam on the cutter, mo from the ground floor to the 7th floor, goi forth between the terrace and the office spaces in the middle of the office, and the corridors c sitions and obstacles for the movements of crossing the office in a daily working mudd moments the office looks like an enormous bla various fragile points, horizontal layers and v Sign upcreate to vote on this title non-localizing that a non-dimensional, At other moments it seems to be organ Useful Not useful You're Reading a Preview cadence, a sequence of operations, whose me formance and repetition might create a tempo Unlock full access with a free trial. movements of models and architects, boxes a
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The Dance
Sheet Music From bubbles to rhythms
Foam is everywhere – on the shelves, on the table of models, in the kitchen. ‘It is very c Rem. I follow the work of the architects, draw computers, cutting the foam on the cutter, mo from the ground floor to the 7th floor, goi forth between the terrace and the office spaces in the middle of the office, and the corridors c sitions and obstacles for the movements of crossing the office in a daily working mudd moments the office looks like an enormous bla various fragile points, horizontal layers and v that create a non-dimensional, non-localizing You're Reading a Preview At other moments it seems to be organ cadence, a sequence of operations, whose me formance and repetition might create a tempo Unlock full access with a free trial. movements of models and architects, boxes a material samples and plans, the nodes in th trajectories, their different speeds, the gesture Download With Free Trial sonorities, and you will find out th at what loo at the beginning is more of a rhythm, or man rhythms. Even though the office is structured in bub working on particular projects creating though distinct, can mingle and over lap in a d – the architects still remain dispersed. A cert tion according to the particular project bubbl lowed, but it is not entirely fixed and pred thing that shows us the irregular dispersio ers is the oma system of telephone calls. If reach Erez from outside, you ring the offi first; the receptionist then spreads a vocal m echoes throughout the entire office: ‘Erez, ca tion, please, Erez, call the reception!’ As soon waves of the receptionist’s voice, amplified by
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reach Erez in some part of the office, Erez has to find a stored in archives, to be rediscovered and re does it mean to generate a new shape, to have telephone handset on any of the work tables. He calls the to design? All these trajectories are to be reception, tells the receptionist the internal number written on the handset and hangs up. And if the same teletraced, all these issues are to be tackled with of quickly explaining them with social factors phone rings in a minute – we know Erez is traceable, he ing the meaning of architecture by appealing has a location in the office, far from or close to his project bubble, he has been reached. None of the architects has a tect’s individuality. fixed phone number, a landline, as they do not have perThings are flying around manent working places; the small procedure I have just Follow the designers as they work on the table described is needed to locate them in t he office. Pursue Shiro as he moves from Ole’s glass-wall office, competition. The dense foam environment a terpretation of sensory data. The disorder, the where a discussion over the cctv project just took place, intensity of the scattered foam contains co with a small-scale model in hand, as he passes through the manifesting the affective quality of the perceiv kitchen to fetch a fresh coffee holding it with the other hand, balancing carefully with the two preciou s objects in predisposes the architects to discern specifi Sign up toFoam votemodels on thisand title shapes. try-outs are kept ev his hands, and cautiously moving towards the table of the office because they are also material traces models where other cctv models, plans and drawings are useful Useful Not You're Reading a Preview being placed. Chase Erez coming from the terrace after a process, holding the imprints of recent projec decisions, and documenting important mom break, passing through the table of models of the WhitUnlock full access with a free trial. life. Yet, the office environment is not a stati ney project, pausing for a moment to see the last update
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reach Erez in some part of the office, Erez has to find a stored in archives, to be rediscovered and re does it mean to generate a new shape, to have telephone handset on any of the work tables. He calls the to design? All these trajectories are to be reception, tells the receptionist the internal number written on the handset and hangs up. And if the same teletraced, all these issues are to be tackled with of quickly explaining them with social factors phone rings in a minute – we know Erez is traceable, he ing the meaning of architecture by appealing has a location in the office, far from or close to his project bubble, he has been reached. None of the architects has a tect’s individuality. fixed phone number, a landline, as they do not have perThings are flying around manent working places; the small procedure I have just Follow the designers as they work on the table described is needed to locate them in t he office. Pursue Shiro as he moves from Ole’s glass-wall office, competition. The dense foam environment a terpretation of sensory data. The disorder, the where a discussion over the cctv project just took place, intensity of the scattered foam contains co with a small-scale model in hand, as he passes through the manifesting the affective quality of the perceiv kitchen to fetch a fresh coffee holding it with the other hand, balancing carefully with the two preciou s objects in predisposes the architects to discern specifi shapes. Foam models and try-outs are kept ev his hands, and cautiously moving towards the table of the office because they are also material traces models where other cctv models, plans and drawings are You're Reading a Preview being placed. Chase Erez coming from the terrace after a process, holding the imprints of recent projec decisions, and documenting important mom break, passing through the table of models of the WhitUnlock full access with a free trial. life. Yet, the office environment is not a stati ney project, pausing for a moment to see the last update phous canvas of the design process. It is mad on the project, before he goes back to his computer. Chase Olga as she cuts a piece of foam to pro duce a competition flows of various foam objects, material sample Download With Free Trial whose shapes can be distinguished and materia model of the nato headquarters, takes it in her hands and from each other, thus creating an environme starts dancing, still holding it up in her hands, staring at it, facilitate the experiencing of the as-yet undefin moving around and showing it to all randomly encountered architects from other project bubbles. The balancing Though th e blue foam is everywhere, no out of the blue in the oma . ‘Things are flying a Shiro, speeding Erez, and even dancing Olga don’t move Erez when describing the environment in th in a homogeneous office space-time, but according to many spaces, times and heterogeneous elements, according to indeed things do circulate at a great pace in th ronment of the office, and change places so o numerous spatial transitions. It is o nly because they come difficult to distinguish foam from materials t back again to the table of models, to the kitchen, to the domly enrolled in the design. The flow of terrace, to the computer tables, to the ringing telephone handsets, that specific office places are generated. brings a mundane object into circulation and take part in the design experimentation, helpi What is the importance for oma designers of these tiny tect to imagine new shapes for the building daily trajectories between the model shop and the 7th designer moves in this environment, encount floor, between terrace and studio, presentation plinths and drawing pads? What does it mean for a foam model to foam or a mundane object, and this encount prises her, that is, it triggers an event. circulate, to have a life in the oma , to be classified and
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If you look carefully at images of the lacma models you bit desperate. In having to adapt our proposa will find out that the roof of the future museum was made went a couple of weeks of complete confusion out of a pair of stockings. These mundane objects flooded to inverse our intuition and to create the opp the design process to play the role of a thin, ephemeral we were doing. It turned out to be some sort o roof texture. Stockings were combined with metal to make heavyweight building as opposed to a kind of a new roof for the lacma complex. The lacma model is needle-like building. I found a bottle of Peps considered to be ‘one of the best models we have ever built,’ and we transformed it into a mould. Yes, ha Erez announces. ‘It is really good. There is a balance were just bored and we were just playing arou between details and abstraction, and between what it shows The Astor story of invention is often told b and why. So, it helps a lot for winning a competition.’ designers: ‘Alain was just gluing somethin The architects experimented with different roof textures, pieces [the Pepsi bottle] and then it became s trying to meet the challenge of designing a museum under The plastic material used for Prada is also a transparent roof in an attempt to accommodate art in a being the result of ‘playing around’. ‘Alain to milieu where it will be viewed in a lively environment and material but on a smaller scale, like the kitch at the same time will be protected from direct light and he inserted it betw een the model’s walls.’ Sign upinvention to vote on titlethe production co sun exposure. The roof experiment with stockings has little hasthis reduced nothing to do with the tone set by one of the master pieces sands of dollars.Not around with foam a useful Useful Playing You're Reading a Preview exhibited in lacma – Rufino Tamayo’s painting entitled objects as ordinary as a bottle of Pepsi, a pair and kitchen plastic is a part of the daily desig Woman with Black Stockings , dating from 1969. It only aims Unlock full access with a free trial. at testing different light conditions: ‘They have art from the oma . As another architect put it: ‘We just
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If you look carefully at images of the lacma models you bit desperate. In having to adapt our proposa will find out that the roof of the future museum was made went a couple of weeks of complete confusion out of a pair of stockings. These mundane objects flooded to inverse our intuition and to create the opp the design process to play the role of a thin, ephemeral we were doing. It turned out to be some sort o roof texture. Stockings were combined with metal to make heavyweight building as opposed to a kind of a new roof for the lacma complex. The lacma model is needle-like building. I found a bottle of Peps considered to be ‘one of the best models we have ever built,’ and we transformed it into a mould. Yes, ha Erez announces. ‘It is really good. There is a balance were just bored and we were just playing arou between details and abstraction, and between what it shows The Astor story of invention is often told b and why. So, it helps a lot for winning a competition.’ designers: ‘Alain was just gluing somethin The architects experimented with different roof textures, pieces [the Pepsi bottle] and then it became s trying to meet the challenge of designing a museum under The plastic material used for Prada is also a transparent roof in an attempt to accommodate art in a being the result of ‘playing around’. ‘Alain to milieu where it will be viewed in a lively environment and material but on a smaller scale, like the kitch at the same time will be protected from direct light and he inserted it betw een the model’s walls.’ sun exposure. The roof experiment with stockings has little invention has reduced the production co nothing to do with the tone set by one of the master pieces sands of dollars. Playing around with foam a You're Reading a Preview exhibited in lacma – Rufino Tamayo’s painting entitled objects as ordinary as a bottle of Pepsi, a pair and kitchen plastic is a part of the daily desig Woman with Black Stockings , dating from 1969. It only aims Unlock full access with a free trial. at testing different light conditions: ‘They have art from the oma . As another architect put it: ‘We just 16th and 17th century and, with the incidence of sunlight, kind of brainstorming session, seeking pos we needed a different roof for this building; a transparent what would look best. It’s a weird start, but w Download With Free Trial one. But this roof is very vulnerable now, it’s a plastic sh eet. the shape immediately.’ Yet, there is no brains And it doesn’t have the uv value. It’s not easy to control in the traditional sense of a collective creativ the light and the shade. It’s very beautiful, but as a museum for enhancing the quality of ideas, creating co a blank brain to be sparked and sto rmed in ord roof it’s not so credible. So, we experimented with stockings to produce another roof.’ That is how the pair of ate an idea, which will be then modelled in fo stockings bought in Rotterdam ended on a museum roof in Los Angeles. 74 As Ole says, ‘What is interesting about LACMA is that it is a de Another mundane object randomly encountered in the structure that can actually accommodate a museum that is yet to b meant to be constructed in the future.’ (Interview with Ole, Septem office – a bottle of Pepsi – inspired the design of the Astor It is also an example of ignoring the context, making it a kind of Hotel in New York. Here is the sto ry: ing from the beginning. That is a very different design technique fro Alain: ‘Oh, that was the advantage of not thinking. We other OMA museum projects such as the NEWhitney museum for i interesting shape came as an answer to intricate constraints. were kind of desperate and we did a project that we really 75 Interview with Erez, November 2002, OMA. liked. It had seven towers and the client liked it so much 76 Interview with Olga, April 2002, OMA 77 Interview with Alain, April 2002, OMA. as well. (…) And we were all so happy about it. And then 78 Interview with Olga, April 2002, OMA they started calculating and found out that the buildings 79 Interview with Olga, April 2002, OMA would be twice as expensive. (…) Then we began to get a 80 Interview with Sho, April 2002, OMA. 74
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we witness a different process: moving in the office, being plaining the moment of surprise at what com surprised by numerous foam and mundane objects, turning process of foam cutting: olga : ‘If you try desperately to find a smart around the table of models, adding new models and taking out others. There is a moment when the architect starts cutting foam.’ ay: Are you telling me that you do not do a imagining the building. The foam in the office intensifies the sense of immediate living; models are objects of intense drawing before making the model, and tha admiration, of thought provocation. have a particular idea in mind before cuttin olga : ‘You stop thinking, you just look at Making and thinking happen together and result in experimental conceptual models that are reminiscent of foam and you try to make it beautiful, you wicked dinosaurs. They are ‘monster models’, i.e., as -yet times you slice something, and then anoth unshaped design works that contain the germs of a buildou-u-u-p-p-p something is there. And you ing-to-be. The first models are gatherings of a number of that’s interesting”; it’s there. Of course we foam and non-foam pieces; later on they become gathera sense of what Rem would like, but when ings of human and non-human concerns that impinge in no longer know what you like in advance.’ Plunging into the nebulous foam, design and confer shape upon the building. Far from being cutting an Sign up to vote ona this titleinteraction with, a allows architects positive expressions of subjective energies, incorporations of in sights and ideas, symbols of great leaps of imagination, tion of, modelsNot other foam try-outs, wh Useful and useful You're Reading a Preview they subsist as ‘things’. ‘Every model has one or more things. them to compare the slow process of shaping prise and even shock from the shape that eme You cannot really say wh at is that – a compositio n of few Unlock full access with a free trial. things, of materials, of whatever.’ As such they accomof their eyes. If the foam presented itself to 81
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we witness a different process: moving in the office, being plaining the moment of surprise at what com surprised by numerous foam and mundane objects, turning process of foam cutting: olga : ‘If you try desperately to find a smart around the table of models, adding new models and taking out others. There is a moment when the architect starts cutting foam.’ ay: Are you telling me that you do not do a imagining the building. The foam in the office intensifies the sense of immediate living; models are objects of intense drawing before making the model, and tha admiration, of thought provocation. have a particular idea in mind before cuttin olga : ‘You stop thinking, you just look at Making and thinking happen together and result in experimental conceptual models that are reminiscent of foam and you try to make it beautiful, you wicked dinosaurs. They are ‘monster models’, i.e., as -yet times you slice something, and then anoth unshaped design works that contain the germs of a buildou-u-u-p-p-p something is there. And you ing-to-be. The first models are gatherings of a number of that’s interesting”; it’s there. Of course we foam and non-foam pieces; later on they become gathera sense of what Rem would like, but when ings of human and non-human concerns that impinge in no longer know what you like in advance.’ Plunging into the nebulous foam, cutting an design and confer shape upon the building. Far from being allows architects a positive interaction with, a expressions of subjective energies, incorporations of in sights and ideas, symbols of great leaps of imagination, tion of, models and other foam try-outs, wh You're Reading a Preview they subsist as ‘things’. ‘Every model has one or more things. them to compare the slow process of shaping prise and even shock from the shape that eme You cannot really say wh at is that – a compositio n of few Unlock full access with a free trial. things, of materials, of whatever.’ As such they accomof their eyes. If the foam presented itself to modate a contested assembly of conflicting demands, reamorphous milieu a few moments ago, the arc strictions to demolish, constraints of h istory, programme, feel the impact of foam’s sudden objectivit Download With Free Trial zoning, typologies, structure and roof, mechanical and abrupt encounter, in the instant of surprise; i electric systems as well as a variety of human concerns – embraces a shape. The designer experiences users’ experiences and client’s demands, all translated, moment, her ‘ou-u-u-p-p-p’ moment when he transplanted into and accommodated by one entity – the to be mere ideas and become the shared sig model. As Ole put it: ‘The model is confronted w ith these objects. The designer thinks as she works, experiences to show how well it is able to accommodate springs out of the object more immediately. game of contrast between what the architec an almost random number of things. And it is even more important to show the ability of the scheme to develop a discover and what emerges in front of her, th multiplicity of qualities, although it should not pre-empt prises as it discloses the germs of a new idea. any of those. The model is rather the indication of a prinLook at Victoria cutting foam with the ciple, of a potential that the building can of fer.’ There is also a moment when designers say: ‘Let’s push 81 Interview with Erez, November 2002, OMA. some foam and see what will come out o f it.’ By working 82 Interview with Ole, September 2002, OMA. 83 Interview with Erez, November 2002, OMA. with foam, architects gain insights they might not have 84 Interview with Olga, April 2002, OMA. achieved otherwise: ‘If you desperately want to find a smart 85 This observation contradicts the traditional understanding of de idea, you go cutting foam,’ argues Olga. Listen to her ex of transferring ideas from the designer’s mind to a physical form (se 81
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she adjusts her movements according to the different speeds Engaging in communication with foam as very interactive material, architects feel the of the instrument; she pushes the regulator button, adjusts the scale, guides the piece of foam to the edge of the burning new model they make. Slicing and manipulati heat, thus eliminating parts of the foam’s mass by burning they are not completely aware of what exac doing and where their work is going. Never its texture. ‘It gets hot, and it burns and cuts the material; experience each particular effect of every actio that’s why it smells,’ says Shiro while cutting foam on the adjacent table. While curving the foam, architects can to the whole that is being produced. Thus, ar modulate and modify the shapes according to the manual cover what they are doing in the course of d as-yet undefined building coerces the archit speed, the scaling of the foam, the technical performance matter guides them to define it. Designers are of the instrument, the intensity of the smell of the burnt material. The thinking about the size and the proportions in the creative process; they are constantly i of the model is rooted in the foam-cutter. Allowing changguided and directed by the design work, e various paths that lead towards its concrete pr es in the angle of cutting and the speed with which one cuts, this technique permits architects to g enerate specific cannot separate the designers’ actions from th shapes that cannot be produced with other modelling of a shape, nor their thoughts and associatio Sign up to vote on this title in the proces visual and tactile experience techniques. according to many transitions, the mov While manipulating foam, Shiro and Victoria feel that useful Useful Notfoam You're Reading a Preview they are positioned inside the material, producing its curves the shape that is being felt. The shape of the bu and shapes: ‘You have a mass, the matter is there, and it is derives from a concrete experience of the offi Unlock full access with a free trial. ment and the concrete experience of model m transformed.’ It is a crafting process of matter transfor-
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Experiencing Absence
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Methods of MVRDV
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she adjusts her movements according to the different speeds Engaging in communication with foam as very interactive material, architects feel the of the instrument; she pushes the regulator button, adjusts the scale, guides the piece of foam to the edge of the burning new model they make. Slicing and manipulati heat, thus eliminating parts of the foam’s mass by burning they are not completely aware of what exac doing and where their work is going. Never its texture. ‘It gets hot, and it burns and cuts the material; experience each particular effect of every actio that’s why it smells,’ says Shiro while cutting foam on the adjacent table. While curving the foam, architects can to the whole that is being produced. Thus, ar modulate and modify the shapes according to the manual cover what they are doing in the course of d as-yet undefined building coerces the archit speed, the scaling of the foam, the technical performance matter guides them to define it. Designers are of the instrument, the intensity of the smell of the burnt material. The thinking about the size and the proportions in the creative process; they are constantly i of the model is rooted in the foam-cutter. Allowing changguided and directed by the design work, e various paths that lead towards its concrete pr es in the angle of cutting and the speed with which one cuts, this technique permits architects to g enerate specific cannot separate the designers’ actions from th shapes that cannot be produced with other modelling of a shape, nor their thoughts and associatio visual and tactile experience in the proces techniques. according to many foam transitions, the mov While manipulating foam, Shiro and Victoria feel that You're Reading a Preview they are positioned inside the material, producing its curves the shape that is being felt. The shape of the bu and shapes: ‘You have a mass, the matter is there, and it is derives from a concrete experience of the offi Unlock full access with a free trial. ment and the concrete experience of model m transformed.’ It is a crafting process of matter transforthan from a series of mental operations. It em mation: they fight with the foam, adapt their postures to its requirements, leave their imprints in its texture. Foam designer who perceives it in concreto as an ob Download With Free Trial allows them to generate shapes that cannot be produced tigation from a large number of foam works of design consists of following the matter a with other materials. As Olga explains, this is because ‘you can test things with foam much more quickly’. Foam is more accepting its surprises, traces of movement flexible than resin, metal and wood – materials usually resistances. Every move in the model shop, wi with the foam-cutter and on the drawing boa used for presentational models by a professional modelevery move in the foam office environment maker. It is soft, direct and versatile, easy to shape ‘once you get your hands on the foam-cutter’. Foam guides the perceptive matter of a building-to-be, as a mo way designers ‘cut a straight line,’ argues Shiro, and allows new disposition. more shaping, boxing and enclosing of things. Thus, architects delegate to the material the power to enfold, to 86 I would like to distinguish between ‘presentation models’ and ‘ the extent that the foam can begin to dominate the model This distinction is not made in the practices of designers at the OM models – which contain the final fully developed concepts – are rar maker at a given moment, and the ‘knowing architect’ loses by OMA. Whenever they need to make them, they call them prese mastery over the building he is striving to understand. to distinguish them from the numerous study and experimental mo Foam cutting is the perfect medium for rapid thinking, always to some extent presentation models as well in this practice. allowing them to imagine the new shape in the moment of cutting instead of anticipating in advance. 86
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The dance profound appeals, the designer becomes a ‘v Watch Olga as she is seized by something unexpected: she building-in-the-making. At any moment in starts straying in the office with the new nato model in this piece of foam, this ‘monster model’ tel her hands. Is there a design idea that precedes the shape here, but there is more to be done’. Olga is con we see as we follow Olga in her excited dance through the the model in her hands, troubled or passion office, showing the model that holds the idea to all the As Ole says: ‘If you look at the models we architects from other project bubbles? No, no one can see that there is a certain amount of passion in claim there is an abstract idea that first appears in the crethem, in different ways.’ Disturbed, worrie ator’s mind, and is later embedded, incorporated, materiobsessed and used by it, she strives to find force alized in a shape. The idea emerges as inseparable from to the specific requests of the design work – a sensible matter; it has an objective locus. It arrives as an calling out to the appeals of the mod el in her Watch the model catching attention, being ‘ou-u-u-p-p-p’ moment in the process of cutting and shaping the foam, making mistakes and experimenting with transformed by the many designers’ hands, slo different materials. With every mo ve of Olga’s hands cutan intense presence – all these little move ting the foam, a shape gradually emerges; the ‘monster explained with the simple concepts of creat Sign up torealization vote on this model’ moves towards the concreteness of a building-togressive of a title project. Rather, the un be. It is to become actual, intense and accomplished. It arises in a moment invention, of instatemen Useful Notofuseful You're Reading a Preview is only because foam, its folds, its bulky mass, the smell of acceptance and acknowledgement of the ex around the cutting machines are all entirely devoted to the lection of elements. It happens, it imposes itsel Unlock full access with a free trial. new shape that it occurs, it exists. The meaning, the subenvironment, inflicts, compels, and intrudes 88
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Experiencing Absence
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profound appeals, the designer becomes a ‘v Watch Olga as she is seized by something unexpected: she building-in-the-making. At any moment in starts straying in the office with the new nato model in this piece of foam, this ‘monster model’ tel her hands. Is there a design idea that precedes the shape here, but there is more to be done’. Olga is con we see as we follow Olga in her excited dance through the the model in her hands, troubled or passion office, showing the model that holds the idea to all the As Ole says: ‘If you look at the models we architects from other project bubbles? No, no one can see that there is a certain amount of passion in claim there is an abstract idea that first appears in the crethem, in different ways.’ Disturbed, worrie ator’s mind, and is later embedded, incorporated, materiobsessed and used by it, she strives to find force alized in a shape. The idea emerges as inseparable from to the specific requests of the design work – a sensible matter; it has an objective locus. It arrives as an calling out to the appeals of the mod el in her Watch the model catching attention, being ‘ou-u-u-p-p-p’ moment in the process of cutting and shaping the foam, making mistakes and experimenting with transformed by the many designers’ hands, slo different materials. With every mo ve of Olga’s hands cutan intense presence – all these little move ting the foam, a shape gradually emerges; the ‘monster explained with the simple concepts of creat model’ moves towards the concreteness of a building-togressive realization of a project. Rather, the un be. It is to become actual, intense and accomplished. It arises in a moment of invention, of instatemen You're Reading a Preview is only because foam, its folds, its bulky mass, the smell of acceptance and acknowledgement of the ex around the cutting machines are all entirely devoted to the lection of elements. It happens, it imposes itsel Unlock full access with a free trial. new shape that it occurs, it exists. The meaning, the subenvironment, inflicts, compels, and intrudes jective, the symbolic emerges with and is inseparable from rhythm – it is not planned and then constru the material, the real, the objective. There are n o distinc witness as we follow Olga dancing, seizing th Download With Free Trial letting herself be seized, is the full br eadth of t tive ways of grasping an architectural object, i.e., through its intrinsic materiality or through its more aesthetic or to-be. Far from being the powerful master of ‘symbolic’ aspects. The materiality of every piece of foam immersed into a world of contingences, the de kept in the office, of every ‘monster model’, generates a building happen. This is the concrete reali meaning and changes the shape of the building-to-be. process. The building appears first as a perce Watch Olga staring at the model at a moment she is which embraces a shape; that means, engaging seized by its new shape, she starts ‘dancing’ with it in her Its unformed matter attests the actuality of pe hands, showing it to all the architects in the office, moving triggers awareness of the perceived shape. with it, holding it high but still staring at the mo del with Can we describe the trajectory traced b admiration – that is, at the moment of seizing the model shapeless foam on the way to a shaped mod and moving with it, she feels the quality of a shape of a the trajectory of a model on the way to the fi without embracing an existing theor etical un building-to-be. There is something mystic in design that surprises the maker, that makes her stand and stroll and dance in the space with the model in her hands. There is 87 Etienne Souriau called this kind of quasi-spiritual force of the d some sort of energy in the ‘monster model’. In the proc‘the angel of the work’ (Souriau, 1956, pp. 14). ess of questioning it and responding to its demands and 88 Interview with Ole, November 2002, OMA. The dance
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of design as realization, construction, creation or planning mathematics, or as the incorporation of sy – all those concepts with which design has so often been expression of abstract thought? Architectur described? When we follow Olga cutting and working with many critics and theorists denote, are inaccess foam, slowly, painstakingly, until a shape emerges, we do because of their spiritual and universal charac low Shiro and Victoria cutting the foam, follow not simply witness the progressive passage from shapeless matter to distinctive form, to reality; we do not naively by a model shape, and you will witness th believe in the realization of a project. Watch Olga, Shiro models in the oma makes architecture a mod and Victoria cutting and sticking pieces of foam together that is charged with meaning which is capable and experimenting with materials. There is no gradual ate enjoyment; it often resides in the sensib progression to reality, no realization of a previously conthings, of models. This is what makes design ceived plan, but vertiginous hesitation, tentative moves, experience of making and perceiving. mistakes, miscalculated gestures, fundamental meandering, dancing. A hesitant maker, a ‘monster model’ that calls 89 Interview with Ole, November 2002, OMA. back its maker and demands completion, and the mystery 90 See Jencks and Baird, 1969; Venturi and Scott Brown, 2004. that accompanies this process – all these elements trace a Sign up to vote on this title tentative trajectory, the complete opposite of a pr oject. In the trajectory, there is no finality, but a state of incom Useful Not useful You're Reading a Preview pleteness. As Ole argues: ‘The process of interpretation and translation is one, and design is one that only stops Unlock full access with a free trial. when the building is finished. And sometimes it’s not even
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of design as realization, construction, creation or planning mathematics, or as the incorporation of sy – all those concepts with which design has so often been expression of abstract thought? Architectur described? When we follow Olga cutting and working with many critics and theorists denote, are inaccess foam, slowly, painstakingly, until a shape emerges, we do because of their spiritual and universal charac low Shiro and Victoria cutting the foam, follow not simply witness the progressive passage from shapeless matter to distinctive form, to reality; we do not naively by a model shape, and you will witness th believe in the realization of a project. Watch Olga, Shiro models in the oma makes architecture a mod and Victoria cutting and sticking pieces of foam together that is charged with meaning which is capable and experimenting with materials. There is no gradual ate enjoyment; it often resides in the sensib progression to reality, no realization of a previously conthings, of models. This is what makes design ceived plan, but vertiginous hesitation, tentative moves, experience of making and perceiving. mistakes, miscalculated gestures, fundamental meandering, dancing. A hesitant maker, a ‘monster model’ that calls 89 Interview with Ole, November 2002, OMA. back its maker and demands completion, and the mystery 90 See Jencks and Baird, 1969; Venturi and Scott Brown, 2004. that accompanies this process – all these elements trace a tentative trajectory, the complete opposite of a pr oject. In the trajectory, there is no finality, but a state of incomYou're Reading a Preview pleteness. As Ole argues: ‘The process of interpretation and translation is one, and design is one that only stops Unlock full access with a free trial. when the building is finished. And sometimes it’s not even there, because the building keeps on changing. I don’t think there is a process where you can remove it entirely from Download With Free Trial the architect and pretend: “that was it”.’ Designing, as witnessed in this short story, is not about projecting in a sense that something launches a new design work and throws it forward, and finds it again in the moment of accomplishment. In the project there is a beginning and an end, a and b, but the experience contingent to the process of making is neglected or rarely recounted – an experience that is so important in the design work achieving a concrete existence. Yet, in the course of what designers call ‘projects’, there are numerous design trajectories that account for the experience of designers in their struggles and achievements in a world of things. They constitute the nature of design. Now, after following designers throughout model-making, can you still think of architecture as an art whose ideas are wrought out in highly technical thought like that of 89
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The Restless Traveller
Do not throw models away
Believing as they did, that there is ‘something architects from the om a act in a meaningfu ronment that can talk back to them and can ac Back to the office One morning as I was chatting to Erez and hanging around as seen in the previous s tory that I called ‘The the Whitney table of models, two big boxes arrived. ‘The can think of the foam environment of the models of Guangzhou are back,’ said Kunlé. ‘Back from flexible organic tissue that keeps a design pro where,’ I asked? ‘From the ground floor,’ said Kunlé. across tools, architects and existing foam sol ‘When did they go there and why? Why are they coming explains that they ‘are not th rowing models a back to the office, now?’ All these questions lingered in sometimes there is something in a small mod my mind as I watched the architects un packing the boxes. two weeks or two months you can look at the I became intrigued by the different circuits in a model’s and you can see that this thing is good. And t trajectory. keep all the models, and when the project or t 7 oma Every time I entered the th-floor space of the tion is finished, we just put them in boxes, a everything was different: the arrangement of the tables had putting everything down in the basement. In t Sign upcan tofind voteallon titlevery old models. been changed, the people working in the project bubbles you thethis models, had rotated, the entire organization of the space was difthe really good Not are presented at small ex Useful ones useful You're Reading a Preview ferent. Every day I inspected the working tables of models. We can now recollect what happened to t the Guangzhou Opera House project. The Kunlé told me: ‘By Monday, you will probably not see half Unlock full access with a free trial. of the things you see today. Half of what we have on the material arrangement on a table of models fo 91
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Experiencing Absence
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The Restless Traveller
Rem Koolhaas
Methods of MVRDV
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Do not throw models away
Believing as they did, that there is ‘something architects from the om a act in a meaningfu ronment that can talk back to them and can ac Back to the office One morning as I was chatting to Erez and hanging around as seen in the previous s tory that I called ‘The the Whitney table of models, two big boxes arrived. ‘The can think of the foam environment of the models of Guangzhou are back,’ said Kunlé. ‘Back from flexible organic tissue that keeps a design pro where,’ I asked? ‘From the ground floor,’ said Kunlé. across tools, architects and existing foam sol ‘When did they go there and why? Why are they coming explains that they ‘are not th rowing models a back to the office, now?’ All these questions lingered in sometimes there is something in a small mod my mind as I watched the architects un packing the boxes. two weeks or two months you can look at the I became intrigued by the different circuits in a model’s and you can see that this thing is good. And t trajectory. keep all the models, and when the project or t Every time I entered the 7th-floor space of the oma tion is finished, we just put them in boxes, a everything was different: the arrangement of the tables had putting everything down in the basement. In t been changed, the people working in the project bubbles you can find all the models, very old models. had rotated, the entire organization of the space was difthe really good ones are presented at small ex You're Reading a Preview ferent. Every day I inspected the working tables of models. We can now recollect what happened to t the Guangzhou Opera House project. The Kunlé told me: ‘By Monday, you will probably not see half Unlock full access with a free trial. of the things you see today. Half of what we have on the material arrangement on a table of models fo table tomorrow will be totally different.’ Foam models soon as the project was put on hold by the clie have their own modes of existence in the office, their own els were packed into boxes and were transp Download With Free Trial trajectories. They are restless travellers. They are not ranground floor. Then they were stored in the domly dispersed in the office, but ar e all kept in particular and probably spent years there until they re arrangements – tables of models, shelves with models, the office tables and were dispersed all over t boxes full of models, books full of images of models. space. Archiving the models allowed architect Designed on the tables allocated to a particular project traces of creativity for a longer period of time; where designers are grouped – ‘the table of Whitney’, ‘the them meant they could rediscover those trac Porto table’, ‘the Seattle table’, they rarely remain in the inventions that time had left intact. And if th remits of the space belonging to the project bubble; they back to the office, it means the Guangzhou circulate in spaces, transcending the single existence of a been recently revised and new design work ha project and overspilling the limited project boundaries. missioned. They circulate ‘up-and-down’ and ‘in-and-out’ of the ‘Rem is very angry when we throw away m office. Let us follow the trajectory of models in the office environment as they move from one material arrangement 91 Guangzhou Opera House, Guangzhou, China, 2002; Competit Opera House. In 2002 the designers at OMA were working on the c to another, and trace their metamorphoses.
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models, but Zaha Hadid won the project and she is now building it 92 Interview with Kunlé, September 2002. 93 Interview with Erez, April 2002
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keep every piece of foam. The whole production is totally all good models and try-outs are stored for at which they re-enter the office circuits of de self-reflexive. And it’s about history, as well.’ Every piece of foam? I doubt it. Had they kept every why models are not thrown away. The piece of foam they produced for the Guangzhou project, archiving and de-archiving the models point t the office would have been flooded with foam that morning. cific feature of the design process – reversibili ‘Well, only the good ones,’ Olga corrects herself. Indeed, means putting on hold, temporarily freezin only four boxes arrived in the office and were carefully tials of models to induce new design shapes; opened by the architects. They followed the inventory list means re-engaging in the flows of things in t in the box and staged them on an empty table – the engaging into the networks of design. Tha ‘Guangzhou table’ where the ‘Guangzhou bubble’ of oma important up-and-down trajectory of the mo designers will be spending their days and nights. down to the basement means fo r models ente At t he same time as the models of Guangzhou reapin a temporary or more durable way, whereas peared in the office, the competition models for the nato the 7th floor means re-entering the circuit headquarters had to vanish, as the project had been unsuccoming back to actuality. cessful. They were so carefully taken care of that Erez and Another important up and down move in Sign up to vote on this title Gabriela spent two whole days classifying the models and trajectory is conditioned by the location of placing them in boxes. They explain me that Thalita is models go up down many times, up Useful The Notanduseful You're Reading a Preview responsible for the archives. But she was nor around that in the office, down meaning the 1st floor this day. Usually they give her the models and she puts them the special model shop is located. The con Unlock full access with a free trial. into boxes. This makes sense; why would a skilful designer initially emerge on the table of models in t 94
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keep every piece of foam. The whole production is totally all good models and try-outs are stored for at which they re-enter the office circuits of de self-reflexive. And it’s about history, as well.’ Every piece of foam? I doubt it. Had they kept every why models are not thrown away. The piece of foam they produced for the Guangzhou project, archiving and de-archiving the models point t the office would have been flooded with foam that morning. cific feature of the design process – reversibili ‘Well, only the good ones,’ Olga corrects herself. Indeed, means putting on hold, temporarily freezin only four boxes arrived in the office and were carefully tials of models to induce new design shapes; opened by the architects. They followed the inventory list means re-engaging in the flows of things in t in the box and staged them on an empty table – the engaging into the networks of design. Tha ‘Guangzhou table’ where the ‘Guangzhou bubble’ of oma important up-and-down trajectory of the mo designers will be spending their days and nights. down to the basement means fo r models ente At t he same time as the models of Guangzhou reapin a temporary or more durable way, whereas peared in the office, the competition models for the nato the 7th floor means re-entering the circuit headquarters had to vanish, as the project had been unsuccoming back to actuality. cessful. They were so carefully taken care of that Erez and Another important up and down move in Gabriela spent two whole days classifying the models and trajectory is conditioned by the location of placing them in boxes. They explain me that Thalita is The models go up and down many times, up You're Reading a Preview responsible for the archives. But she was nor around that in the office, down meaning the 1st floor this day. Usually they give her the models and she puts them the special model shop is located. The con Unlock full access with a free trial. into boxes. This makes sense; why would a skilful designer initially emerge on the table of models in t like Erez spend two entire days packing up models into office space but, to refine a model, designers t boxes? But I could not understand how Thalita, who is not on the 1st floor to work with the special mac Download With Free Trial an architect, could do the archiving of those models she has model shop. The architects explain that five y never worked with and how she could produce an archive model shop was in the office on the 7th flo of a project she vaguely knows. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Olga was much more connection between the mo reassures me. ‘She puts everything in the archives; every the other design spaces. According to Olga, page is described. And you can find everything inside.’ tion happened when the model shop was m As soon as ‘a project is back to the office’, as oma first floor: designers like to say, Thalita will find the boxes for them olga : Because you don’t want to go downsta and she will bring the boxes that provide enough design take what ever is here and you spray thing works to fill the working tables. A number of projects came tice of spraying things also started when the back to the office when I was working there: the Korean moved downstairs. I think I belong to on project, the ‘Age’ project, the Oslo project. Empty tables generations who can use the milling machi were named after the projects and were filled with life that don’t use these machines any more. The s swam out of the archive boxes; these tables play an imporlost. tant role as they gather the team and re-enact further design actions. 94 Interview with Olga, April 2002, OMA. Put in boxes, numbered and transformed in catalogues, 95 Interview with Olga, October 2002, OMA. 94
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ay: Why was the model shop moved? olga : Five years ago th e model shop w as in Rem’s office.
For instance, the models of the new hitney an were all made in-house. But when the office But the office was small and the model s hop was in the final presentational model for an important co middle of the 7th floor. And then, when the Prada exhibition, the foam models are sent to the project started, the office grew and we had two con Vincent de Rijk, a professional model-maker tainers in the parking garage; but if you work in the what might be expected, the model that ente parking garage nobody ever sees you. And then, they shop of Vincent and the model that comes ou moved it downstairs, and now it’s underused. be quite different. ‘Vincent is the one who inj That is how the modelling practice was incorporated into even more subjective qualities into things an the different project bubbles, and the fo am cutters landed we were led to work with him,’ argues Ole. V on many office tables; modelling became an integral part not simply follow the instructions of the archi of design at the oma . The location of the model shop to produce the final model, completing a sim changed the trajectory of the model entirely. Whereas the task. Known for his experimental style, he ra model used to travel between the different office spaces interpret the design and generate new creati on the 7th floor, only in a horizontal direction, in-and-out In his workshop, the blue foam model mad Sign up to vote on this title of the model shop until the model had been refined and subjected to further experiments with a vari the concept was determined, the relocation of the model niques. Useful Not useful You're Reading a Preview erez: Vincent is really good. And he is really g shop meant that the model had to be taken down to the model shop to be transformed and refined, and up again he thinks. He knows that nothing is really Unlock full access with a free trial. to the office. Whenever models travel up and down to the nothing is really said. So, he can also imagi 96
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ay: Why was the model shop moved? olga : Five years ago th e model shop w as in Rem’s office.
For instance, the models of the new hitney an were all made in-house. But when the office But the office was small and the model s hop was in the final presentational model for an important co middle of the 7th floor. And then, when the Prada exhibition, the foam models are sent to the project started, the office grew and we had two con Vincent de Rijk, a professional model-maker tainers in the parking garage; but if you work in the what might be expected, the model that ente parking garage nobody ever sees you. And then, they shop of Vincent and the model that comes ou moved it downstairs, and now it’s underused. be quite different. ‘Vincent is the one who inj That is how the modelling practice was incorporated into even more subjective qualities into things an the different project bubbles, and the fo am cutters landed we were led to work with him,’ argues Ole. V on many office tables; modelling became an integral part not simply follow the instructions of the archi of design at the oma . The location of the model shop to produce the final model, completing a sim changed the trajectory of the model entirely. Whereas the task. Known for his experimental style, he ra model used to travel between the different office spaces interpret the design and generate new creati on the 7th floor, only in a horizontal direction, in-and-out In his workshop, the blue foam model mad of the model shop until the model had been refined and subjected to further experiments with a vari the concept was determined, the relocation of the model niques. You're Reading a Preview erez: Vincent is really good. And he is really g shop meant that the model had to be taken down to the model shop to be transformed and refined, and up again he thinks. He knows that nothing is really Unlock full access with a free trial. nothing is really said. So, he can also imagi to the office. Whenever models travel up and down to the archives, they are simply packed and unpacked and rarely the building, and that’s good. ay: Are there any important differences betwe get transformed. Yet, whenever they travel up and down Download With Free Trial niques that Vincent uses as a professional m between the office ( 7th floor) and the model shop ( 1st floor), they always get transformed; the travel brings th em and your techniques? erez: Definitely, yes. But what is nice about V new modifications; you can literally see the model’s metamorphoses in the gradual up-and-down moves as you bump he never does anything by means of o ne te into an architect holding a model in hands on the steep never says ‘ok , that’s my technique, and I staircase connecting the floors. But whenever models travel that way’. He is very good at lots of techni horizontally to go out of the office and come back to it, the even better that he manages to combine al in-and-out trajectory brings them more alternations than niques. So, that’s why Rem also likes him they can gain in any internal up-and-down move. Models manages to discuss with him and with us as go to competitions and linger on the tables of juries and would be the most appropriate technique committees, planning commissions, and professional model The combination of really precise things makers. They travel to the competition venue together with things is the nice thing about him. plans and other visuals. ‘Maybe the models are the most memorable things; and the thing that the public connects 96 Interview with Olga, October 2002, OMA. to most of our buildings,’ says Ole. 97 Interview with Ole, April 2002, OMA. Most of the oma final models are made in the office. 98 Interview with Ole, November 2002, OMA. 96
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In Vincent’s workshop, models can be made with materials and the books. When concentrated on the that cannot be seen at the om a . Those materials require models retain their traces of design insights heavy machines and special equipment, which could make mental scenarios. the model-making process quite slow. And time is what ‘The models are kept on the table, becaus some of them again and because we also nee designers at the oma are often lacking. ‘A laser cutter for example is very precise for a drawing and it cuts exactly them. We have tested a scenario and it didn’t where the lines of the drawings are, but we don’t have a the result. But we kept it. Even the models w laser cutter here at the oma ,’ explains Carol. The time a on the table – and there are hundreds of mod model spends in Vincent’s workshop is precious as it allows – still do not illustrate the full potential or a the model to gain valuable new properties that cannot be bilities that we could have realized. Because w acquired with the quick techniques of foam cutting at the ed one issue, one scenario, it doesn’t entirely oma . Thus, every moment in the model trajectory endows particular possibility. We shouldn’t stop expl it with new qualities, enriches it and transforms it; every direction and simply test another scenario be translation modifies it and allows it to gain new properties work differently there. So, what we are trying as an engaging perceptive object. Models change in a simto eliminate the impossibilities. We try to keep Sign to vote onofthis title ilar way in their in-and-out trajectories between th e office ofup starting points view open, so to speak.’ and the client’s headquarters or the planning commission, The table sustains the multiplicity of Useful Not useful You're Reading a Preview when they meet the city mayor or a group of proto-users. into account the rapidity of changes in the de In such cases, what might change the model and trigger architects need to keep all material traces o Unlock full access with a free trial. design transformations is not the heavy machines but the perimentation to remember the different sc 100
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In Vincent’s workshop, models can be made with materials and the books. When concentrated on the that cannot be seen at the om a . Those materials require models retain their traces of design insights heavy machines and special equipment, which could make mental scenarios. the model-making process quite slow. And time is what ‘The models are kept on the table, becaus some of them again and because we also nee designers at the oma are often lacking. ‘A laser cutter for example is very precise for a drawing and it cuts exactly them. We have tested a scenario and it didn’t where the lines of the drawings are, but we don’t have a the result. But we kept it. Even the models w laser cutter here at the oma ,’ explains Carol. The time a on the table – and there are hundreds of mod model spends in Vincent’s workshop is precious as it allows – still do not illustrate the full potential or a the model to gain valuable new properties that cannot be bilities that we could have realized. Because w acquired with the quick techniques of foam cutting at the ed one issue, one scenario, it doesn’t entirely oma . Thus, every moment in the model trajectory endows particular possibility. We shouldn’t stop expl it with new qualities, enriches it and transforms it; every direction and simply test another scenario be translation modifies it and allows it to gain new properties work differently there. So, what we are trying as an engaging perceptive object. Models change in a simto eliminate the impossibilities. We try to keep ilar way in their in-and-out trajectories between th e office of starting points of view open, so to speak.’ and the client’s headquarters or the planning commission, You're Reading a Preview The table sustains the multiplicity of when they meet the city mayor or a group of proto-users. into account the rapidity of changes in the de In such cases, what might change the model and trigger architects need to keep all material traces o Unlock full access with a free trial. design transformations is not the heavy machines but the perimentation to remember the different sc serious concerns of all those involved in the project. have been tested, the possibilities and direct If we keep on following the model in its horizontal explored. The abandoned and rejected proj Download With Free Trial travels within the oma premises, we will find out that models kept as prospective steps to successful desig also often take a rest on the table of models, on the shelves the material trajectory of a project, the tab of the bookcases, sharing the space with material samples traceable. Every model brings an idea and em and archives, in the presentational concept books, in the meaning. As such, the table is the material loc archival boxes, in office presentations, in the office kitchen, ideas. Accommodating a number of points o in the archive drawers. All these material arrangements vast range of possibilities, the table is the mat present a choice of visuals, not as anaesthetized and static documentation of the stages of architectural accomplish99 Interview with Erez, November 2002, OMA. 100 Interview with Carol, October 2002, OMA. ments but rather as tentative collections of ‘wor king objects’. 101 On the particular process of circulation and feedback which t As such, they might provide a very specific focus for a broad received in the process of presenting and discussing the models w scope of concepts and serve the cause of diffusion of archibranches of the public, see Yaneva, 2009, chapter 4. 102 I have shown elsewhere that architects pragmatically approac tectural knowledge in the office. They are not simple knowable through the various practices of image-making and mod places of rest for models and images; instead, these arcutting the foam, retouching image edges and correcting the repre the screen, architects are not only engaged in a struggle to erase u rangements are meant to re-enact th e building and its life disordered subjectivities; in this process, they also gain new knowl through a series of events. graspable otherwise (Yaneva, 2009). Let us look at two of these arrangements – the tables 103 Interview with Kunlé, September 2002, OMA. 100
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the designers. It reminds oma designers that ‘they cannot sible users. For the Whitney project for exampl create an intelligent scheme out of the blue’. When a key several types of books of different formats fo experiment is being conducted or a significant brainstorm of actors to whom the project was presented session is being carried out, the table of models also serves takes the form of a brochure when architects after a public presentation, but it can have a as an important organizational node of the project-bubble activities. If architects want to ‘make a building exist for different content if it is to be distributed at a everyone in the office, they ask everybody to put a prothe Landmark Commission. Underpinning o posal on the table overnight’. Thus, the table acts as the architectural visualization, the material arran main co-ordination point of the particular design task; it the tables and in the books define the ‘wor guides and redistributes the actions. architecture, and, at the same time, cultivat Another material arrangement of import for the model approach. They also train the architects, who trajectory is the concept book which summarizes th e proback and forward, moving across and circula ject, promotes a moment of d eceleration in the course of the tables or with the books in their hands. the design, and allows evaluation of the effects of design As material arrangements, both the tables moves. the concept books offer a rare glimpse of d Sign up to They vote on titleto serve the imm ‘At one point there is a stop in the process, and you making. are this intended collect the materials. Again you evaluate the project, and tices of design.Not role is performative: useful Useful Their You're Reading a Preview you try to sort it in a different way. And it just makes the illustrations of projects or urban concepts, o project and your argument shorter. So, it’s important, ous responses to a competition or a client Unlock full access with a free trial. because in a way it forces you to stop, look at the project organizational devices used to enact further d 104
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the designers. It reminds oma designers that ‘they cannot sible users. For the Whitney project for exampl create an intelligent scheme out of the blue’. When a key several types of books of different formats fo experiment is being conducted or a significant brainstorm of actors to whom the project was presented session is being carried out, the table of models also serves takes the form of a brochure when architects after a public presentation, but it can have a as an important organizational node of the project-bubble activities. If architects want to ‘make a building exist for different content if it is to be distributed at a everyone in the office, they ask everybody to put a prothe Landmark Commission. Underpinning o posal on the table overnight’. Thus, the table acts as the architectural visualization, the material arran main co-ordination point of the particular design task; it the tables and in the books define the ‘wor guides and redistributes the actions. architecture, and, at the same time, cultivat Another material arrangement of import for the model approach. They also train the architects, who trajectory is the concept book which summarizes th e proback and forward, moving across and circula ject, promotes a moment of d eceleration in the course of the tables or with the books in their hands. the design, and allows evaluation of the effects of design As material arrangements, both the tables moves. the concept books offer a rare glimpse of d ‘At one point there is a stop in the process, and you making. They are intended to serve the imm collect the materials. Again you evaluate the project, and tices of design. Their role is performative: You're Reading a Preview you try to sort it in a different way. And it just makes the illustrations of projects or urban concepts, o project and your argument shorter. So, it’s important, ous responses to a competition or a client Unlock full access with a free trial. because in a way it forces you to stop, look at the project organizational devices used to enact further d in a different manner, and evaluate it again. (…) Even after to train the younger architects and to inform the deadline, when you look at th e project book it’s differ viewers, to teach them how to think architect Download With Free Trial ent. It’s like the Guangzhou Opera project. We did this courage them to act accordingly. They provid project, we were into it, we liked it and everything was good. guide to design practice. Through their reiter And now the pr oject is back and when I look at the book performance, new knowledge is gained and co suddenly I have criticism, and I believe so me of the things among architects in the office and visitors. could have been done differently. And of course, if this Let us have a closer look at the visuals in a project goes on, I know how to think about it differently.’ cept book by oma . Far from being back-box Like the tables of models, the books are summaries of cally polished illustrations attesting to stabiliz the design steps that make the material trajectory of a objects and certain knowledge, the visuals are project traceable. They keep some traces of exploration, the book as dynamic cognitive objects, tentati and present the results of design experimentation. Like the having a crucial performative impact on des tables they allow the designers to go back and rethink the They offer no signs of big ideas or great leaps design moves previously made. They are easy to review as tion, but traces of executive doing, of design in the entire information is collected at one place and in one 104 Interview with Alain, April 2002, OMA. format. In some cases, the books are produced not simply 105 Interview with Erez, November 2002, OMA. to inform the design process but also to inform the differ ent 106 To see the concept book of the Seattle Public Library for insta groups that take part in design – clients, neighbours, poshttp://www.spl.org/cen_conceptbook/page2.htm. 104
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Diamonds And Sponge The concept book depicts the experimental situations that make a model possible, and deliberately expose the relationship of that model with a variety of context-making factors. The model on these images is reminiscent to a On a September afternoon in 2002 I had arran Erez for an in terview. We decided to meet human model sitting for and perfor ming in the studio of a painter. Very often, the setting in which models are prothe 1st floor – the only place we could have duced is not stripped away from the images – that theatriuninterrupted by other designers or project e cal quasi-technical setting is an integral part o f the design Ole’s glass office was another quiet space for discussions, but it was occupied at the time. events in the process of model-making. The visuals do not hide the awkward events, the brute materials, the unpolished preferred also the 1st-floor interviews becaus and uncompleted surfaces, bur rather expose them as a part entered its tranquil and well-organized spac cally ordered by better arranged tables of m of office life. A number of images ‘report’ on the work in immediately transported to the office future, a the studio and show designers in action. A model – and even the building – is rarely detached from the studio situation future. I liked spending time on the ground of its production, from the site of experimentation and the busy model shop opened to a larger qua Sign up to voteRem on this space, where usedtitle to begin his guided previous enactments of the building-to-be. The building emerges first as a studio affair, as a genuine oma producoffice. I also remember Rem showing me ar Useful Not useful You're Reading a Preview tion. Rather than presenting the main building’s concepts first visit to the oma , and he was especially pr and its big ideas, a concept book made by oma restages of the models you can only view in this space: Unlock full access with a free trial. experiments with sponge and the huge mod moments of office life on its pages and re- enacts the main 108
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Diamonds And Sponge The concept book depicts the experimental situations that make a model possible, and deliberately expose the relationship of that model with a variety of context-making factors. The model on these images is reminiscent to a On a September afternoon in 2002 I had arran Erez for an in terview. We decided to meet human model sitting for and perfor ming in the studio of a painter. Very often, the setting in which models are prothe 1st floor – the only place we could have duced is not stripped away from the images – that theatriuninterrupted by other designers or project e cal quasi-technical setting is an integral part o f the design Ole’s glass office was another quiet space for discussions, but it was occupied at the time. events in the process of model-making. The visuals do not hide the awkward events, the brute materials, the unpolished preferred also the 1st-floor interviews becaus and uncompleted surfaces, bur rather expose them as a part entered its tranquil and well-organized spac cally ordered by better arranged tables of m of office life. A number of images ‘report’ on the work in immediately transported to the office future, a the studio and show designers in action. A model – and even the building – is rarely detached from the studio situation future. I liked spending time on the ground of its production, from the site of experimentation and the busy model shop opened to a larger qua space, where Rem used to begin his guided previous enactments of the building-to-be. The building emerges first as a studio affair, as a genuine oma producoffice. I also remember Rem showing me ar You're Reading a Preview tion. Rather than presenting the main building’s concepts first visit to the oma , and he was especially pr and its big ideas, a concept book made by oma restages of the models you can only view in this space: Unlock full access with a free trial. experiments with sponge and the huge mod moments of office life on its pages and re- enacts the main design events that made this building possible. ings in construction like Porto or Seattle. I calling the Prada sponge samples ‘the materi The oma is treated in the books and the tables of modDownload With Free Trial nity’. What I also recall is the strangeness of els as a world that is to be re-enacted with the help of the and Rem’s pride. Sometimes, tired of the busy designers. It is because the actual process of design is a combination of movements and changes, disjunctions and of the 7th floor, I simply retired to the 1st floo plate these models. culminations, breaks and reunions, that the model trajec And, here was Erez, seated next to the Se tories up and down in the office and in and out of the office are capable of generating new design qualities. There is no feeling comfortable to be in the limelight of t stable design concept that travels without transformations, and sharing the silent space with the models: h secretly admired most of them. embodying the big insights of a ‘creator’ or reflecting ‘This is a model made in 1999, it’s a ver cultural and social influences; instead, there are sinuous tentative trajectories of a restless traveller gaining meanthing. But you can see that these diamonds ar mesh. And they stayed until the build ing bega ing in the process of travelling. In this design experience, structed; so, this material remained throughou studio affairs replace the social affairs; they generate the At one point we tried some fabrics, and they s content. 108
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107 On the capacity of different OMA projects to generate multiple contents, see Koolhaas et al., 1995, OMA and Koolhaas, 2004.
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108 Prada Sponge, Los Angeles, USA, 2004; Research and deve material in the use of Prada Epicenter store; built.
way on the model too. Another good example of this could cutter, its angle, its speed, allow oma designer be Prada; you see this material, sponge, over there [he curved and innovative building shapes. Th points to the sponge samples]. So the Prada sponge at the technique triggers changes in the building beginning was a small model in sponge, which they tried quotes another example of how the modellin to imitate. Chris worked quite a lot to develop the material building design. that would really imitate it and present the same qualities erez: The technique of modelling influence and the same appearance. And eventually they managed If you build a square building, it’s easier to to do it. It came from the model, almost in a direct line t o of foam. For example, the Guangzhou O the final thing.’ has a super-weird shape, it’s a folding surfa The connection between the so-called ‘diamonds ’ on this folding surface was really, really hard. the Seattle model and the diamond seismic system of the develop the technique of building the mo building-under-construction puzzled me for a while. I ences the design, because it never turns out wanted to underst and it. Erez and I looked at the Seattle thought it would b e. Then, if it’s nicer it w diamonds together: ‘Very often there is a direct connecthe design. If it’s not, you can abandon tion between the material of the model and the material of on to another technique because you don’ Sign up to vote on this title says. So, it’s not the building,’ states Erez. It is a literal one: ‘If for instance establish beauty’ as Rem the model has a wire mesh operating copper bottom, it’s first sight. Not useful Useful ay You're Reading a Preview about taking that literally.’ : And how did you manage to bu ild it? To understand how direct this connection can be, to erez: We built an extension to the foam-cu Unlock full access with a free trial. witness how exactly the mesh of the Seattle model became placed two guides on the sides for the foa 109
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way on the model too. Another good example of this could cutter, its angle, its speed, allow oma designer be Prada; you see this material, sponge, over there [he curved and innovative building shapes. Th points to the sponge samples]. So the Prada sponge at the technique triggers changes in the building beginning was a small model in sponge, which they tried quotes another example of how the modellin to imitate. Chris worked quite a lot to develop the material building design. that would really imitate it and present the same qualities erez: The technique of modelling influence and the same appearance. And eventually they managed If you build a square building, it’s easier to to do it. It came from the model, almost in a direct line t o of foam. For example, the Guangzhou O the final thing.’ has a super-weird shape, it’s a folding surfa The connection between the so-called ‘diamonds ’ on this folding surface was really, really hard. the Seattle model and the diamond seismic system of the develop the technique of building the mo building-under-construction puzzled me for a while. I ences the design, because it never turns out wanted to underst and it. Erez and I looked at the Seattle thought it would b e. Then, if it’s nicer it w diamonds together: ‘Very often there is a direct connecthe design. If it’s not, you can abandon tion between the material of the model and the material of on to another technique because you don’ the building,’ states Erez. It is a literal one: ‘If for instance establish beauty’ as Rem says. So, it’s not the model has a wire mesh operating copper bottom, it’s first sight. You're Reading a Preview ay: And how did you manage to bu ild it? about taking that literally.’ To understand how direct this connection can be, to erez: We built an extension to the foam-cu Unlock full access with a free trial. placed two guides on the sides for the foa witness how exactly the mesh of the Seattle model became a material used for the building and how the sponge as wire. We really worked very hard, but we o ‘the material of modernity’ was obtained for Prada, I shall three models from it. Because we just coul Download With Free Trial At that point we constructed it on the first guide you through some related stories of material invention within the oma practice. the final model was built from the 3Numerous stories of design at the om a emphasize how Some outsourcing guy built it for us on t important the techniques of model-making are for the shape because we couldn’t. Again it’s time and kno of a building. Olga tells me, for instance, that a prevailing can do it. But in the process in which the story in the office is the one about h ow the use of Perspex we need to produce something new in model-making changed the world of architecture. Later morning, so to speak. So, we cannot spen I understood that it was the oma version of this story that building a model. excited most designers at work, namely, how the foam There is a variety of elements that are to cutter is an invention as important as Perspex, an invenconsideration in the making of a new model o restrictions of the site, the clients’ fears, the tion capable of changing the face of architecture. Once the transparent and easy to manipulate Perspex began to be requirements, the small budget, the commu used for models, this changed the face of the final build109 Interview with Erez, November 2002, OMA. ings, claim oma architects. The Perspex models ‘show at 110 Interview with Carol, October 2002, OMA. one glance the outside and the inside’. It also anticipated 111 Interview with Olga, October 2002, OMA. buildings with such properties. In the same way, the foam112 Interview with Erez, November 2002, OMA. 109
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against the design, the protected buildings, the zoning that’s how it could then be developed. We had els at the beginning, they were all in foam; b filling, the neighbours’ vulnerability, etc. This list can be extended according to the specificity of each project and painted – one was concrete and we sanded its destination. Yet, what remains a common feature of all like a concrete block. One was of glass and we tern on it. One was made of foam, but was buildings-to-come is that they are all ‘things’, i.e., conmodel, so it had more transverse bars. And so tested assemblies of contradictory issues. Looking at design practice, we should add another aspect that would make were meant to be three kinds of representa the ‘thingly’ nature of a building easier to comprehend. models say: ‘it could be concrete, it could There are studio events related to the particular performance be steel. Which one do you want?’ The conc of a design object, or the substantiation of a property of an more abstract and the more interesting in re object in time. They are embedded in the process of using the project.’ particular modelling techniques or in experimentation with Thus, we learned from Carol that blue st materials and shapes. These singular events often poin t to not-yet-defined materiality of the building-to the intensity of design life at the oma . The fact that the one hand, the model can represent existing materiality of Perspex or the specific use of the foam-cutter materials – steel, concrete, glass. These are Sign upare totovote on this title has a certain impact on the building’s shape cannot to be that be taken from the catalogues. The doubted. Yet, the importance of these singular events for and predictable.Not make a model that wou Useful To useful You're Reading a Preview the building-to-be has not been entirely accounted for. Can one of those materials would merely requir a model fully predict in advance what the building-to-be their texture or form on the model. Architect Unlock full access with a free trial. will look like? Can architects b e completely prepared for ply say: ‘ ok we would like to have it in coppe 113
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against the design, the protected buildings, the zoning that’s how it could then be developed. We had els at the beginning, they were all in foam; b filling, the neighbours’ vulnerability, etc. This list can be extended according to the specificity of each project and painted – one was concrete and we sanded its destination. Yet, what remains a common feature of all like a concrete block. One was of glass and we tern on it. One was made of foam, but was buildings-to-come is that they are all ‘things’, i.e., conmodel, so it had more transverse bars. And so tested assemblies of contradictory issues. Looking at design practice, we should add another aspect that would make were meant to be three kinds of representa the ‘thingly’ nature of a building easier to comprehend. models say: ‘it could be concrete, it could There are studio events related to the particular performance be steel. Which one do you want?’ The conc of a design object, or the substantiation of a property of an more abstract and the more interesting in re object in time. They are embedded in the process of using the project.’ particular modelling techniques or in experimentation with Thus, we learned from Carol that blue st materials and shapes. These singular events often poin t to not-yet-defined materiality of the building-to the intensity of design life at the oma . The fact that the one hand, the model can represent existing materiality of Perspex or the specific use of the foam-cutter materials – steel, concrete, glass. These are has a certain impact on the building’s shape cannot to be that are to be taken from the catalogues. The doubted. Yet, the importance of these singular events for and predictable. To make a model that wou You're Reading a Preview the building-to-be has not been entirely accounted for. Can one of those materials would merely requir a model fully predict in advance what the building-to-be their texture or form on the model. Architect Unlock full access with a free trial. will look like? Can architects b e completely prepared for ply say: ‘ ok we would like to have it in coppe the building-to-come? Can the building faithfully follow will try to imitate the copper on the model. its models? Both models and buildings travel and undergo architects at the oma and architects from oth Download With Free Trial changes in this process. In their attempts to move toward s often work. On the other hand, in the proc each other, to bring life into the studio and to re-enact it, experimentation, some new materials and ma the tentative moves of the two travellers trace a twisting can be obtained. In that case, ‘architects build a trajectory interrupted or guided by studio events. to look for new materials’. The material com of a studio event. And that is something so d the oma . While the foam is still blue Sitting in front of Erez that afternoon in the interview, ‘Sometimes we use some materials of whic sharing the space only with the model of the Seattle Libr ary, quite sure of how they work. We just find the I thought about the differences between the colour perand we use them on the model, and then we st ception of the two office spaces. If the 7th-floor open-plan ing that material. Then we call people and we space were to be defined in colour, that would definitely we can actually achieve this sort of effect. So be blue because of the blue foam predominantly used by the just use a material that really does not exist. It oma . As you go downward the 1st floor, you start thinking so interesting that we say “ ok , it looks really n about design in many other different colours. Why is that? ‘The blue foam means that you do not have definition, 113 On the ‘thingly’ nature of buildings see Latour and Yaneva 20 it’s going to be blue foam or metal and copper, maybe. So, 114 Interview with Carol, October 2002, OMA. 113
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can we achieve this in reality?” That’s why a lot of things not look at the catalogue. Instead of going are developed in the office. Some offices simply apply finding a good material, we first look at our o existing materials. Of course it’s easier to use materials from thing is compelling and looks good … you ca the shelf, from the catalogue, but we can’t be on the cutto six months for some materials that simula you put into the model. It always goes from t ting edge if we do that. So, we develop our own materials, we develop new structures.’ the catalogue and not the other way around.’ The experimental effect achieved on the model is to The fact that designers at the oma refus be repeated and reproduced at building level. Take the catalogue of existing materials, preferring to p Flick house for instance. At the beginning, designers their own materials in situ , shows the extent constructed a blue model and they had difficulty in condense foam environment provides a creative sidering how to make ‘a material that will give the same proactive design process. It allows different transparent light that was seen in the model’. Another stimulate the makers and to involve them in example is the model of the nato headquarters. ‘When ing and experimentation. What follows is a we did these small lines,’ explains Erez, ‘it was just an ex moment, which architects often recall in the periment with the model technique. Then we tried to invention, especially for the emblematic Pr Sign up tells to vote on this title imitate this quality of the façade; you see it over ther e. So, Erez the story: ‘Somebody just hung m to design the real façade we tried to imitate the façade the sponge andNot “Let’s try to do a mate Useful said:useful You're Reading a Preview effect we first achieved on the model.’ I wondered how this look the same and will have this quality.” An effect was obtained. Could it possibly be merely skilful use we did it.’ Erez continues: ‘If you want Unlock full access with a free trial. of the foam-cutter, or something else? Erez replied quickly: happen you hire a manufacturer. You have fe 115
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can we achieve this in reality?” That’s why a lot of things not look at the catalogue. Instead of going are developed in the office. Some offices simply apply finding a good material, we first look at our o existing materials. Of course it’s easier to use materials from thing is compelling and looks good … you ca the shelf, from the catalogue, but we can’t be on the cutto six months for some materials that simula you put into the model. It always goes from t ting edge if we do that. So, we develop our own materials, we develop new structures.’ the catalogue and not the other way around.’ The experimental effect achieved on the model is to The fact that designers at the oma refus be repeated and reproduced at building level. Take the catalogue of existing materials, preferring to p Flick house for instance. At the beginning, designers their own materials in situ , shows the extent constructed a blue model and they had difficulty in condense foam environment provides a creative sidering how to make ‘a material that will give the same proactive design process. It allows different transparent light that was seen in the model’. Another stimulate the makers and to involve them in example is the model of the nato headquarters. ‘When ing and experimentation. What follows is a we did these small lines,’ explains Erez, ‘it was just an ex moment, which architects often recall in the periment with the model technique. Then we tried to invention, especially for the emblematic Pr imitate this quality of the façade; you see it over ther e. So, Erez tells the story: ‘Somebody just hung m to design the real façade we tried to imitate the façade the sponge and said: “Let’s try to do a mate You're Reading a Preview effect we first achieved on the model.’ I wondered how this look the same and will have this quality.” An effect was obtained. Could it possibly be merely skilful use we did it.’ Erez continues: ‘If you want Unlock full access with a free trial. of the foam-cutter, or something else? Erez replied quickly: happen you hire a manufacturer. You have fe ‘This was all done with the foam-cutter, you just do a lot do material studies, and interesting companie of stripes, and that’s all.’ The models test true effects, as interesting stuff.’ The research on material Download With Free Trial Ole describes this process. In that sense oma models are ther used for other projects and purposes, no realistic: ‘We do try to test a lot of things on models with for this building. the sense of realism, which obviously still implies different But while designers and manufacturers de degrees of abstraction, but it really also comes down to to produce a material that would repeat the sa your experience, and to your ability to learn from these generated in the model-making, in order to he things.’ Thus, when these randomly and locally achieved get closer to the building-to-be, what hap effects in the concrete situation of model experimentation, building? How does the building travel to g as seen on the Flick and the nato models, are to be the materials and shapes generated in the stu repeated and reproduced, slowly and gradually merging How do these two travellers meet, how do th into a novel material, a new tentative design trajectory is triggered. If we follow it for a while, we are certainly able 115 Interview with Kunlé, November 2002, OMA. 116 Flick House, Zurich, Switzerland, 2001 Museum for contemp to witness how a studio event plays a part in generating the commission. reality of a building-to-be. 117 Interview with Olga, November 2002, OMA. 118 Interview with Erez, November 2002, OMA. A material that compels the designer can easily create a 119 Interview with Ole, November 2002, OMA. studio event. ‘We work with different models, and when 120 Interview with Olga, November 2002, OMA. we try to finish one we put some materials on it. We do 121 Interview with Erez, November 2002, OMA. 115
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moves of approaching each other draw trajectories of in made in order to see how it affects the buildin Models and building are associated in su vention? Under the pressure of the construction, and in front of once the architects, clients, and public see the the eyes of astonished workers and engineers in S eattle or think of the building. ‘The building is one moment in the proce Porto, architects constantly move back and forth between the building-under-construction and its models, comparif you build it, it’s just one moment, because ing, correcting and simultaneously updating them. ‘In lines. But we always go on and develop it. Porto, they have a model on the site, because it’s such a Maybe it also leads to something bad on som But there is no end to these things. And that complicated building that they can go and look at things in the model to better understand it and update it.’ ‘Even you look at the cctv and all these models, no the production phase is still subject to changes,’ argues really an end product, and none of them is re Kunlé. ‘So, if we realize that something is totally wrong at ning, and none of them can stand for the bu that point, we can still change the model after the build And everywhere you keep models that look d ing.’ To understand the Seattle Library, for instance, in Thus, the direction of the w hole design p terms of what the space would look like in three dimenan ultimate building: instead of beginning Sign upending to vote this title sions and to test the diamond seismic system installed and upon with a building in a linear, between the platforms of the library, as well as the ramps progressive venture, design contains both Useful Not useful You're Reading a Preview and the fabric of w-sections on the interior of the glass building as two events; each of them is a mom and aluminium skin, the architects built up a mock-up: becoming of the other, each of them emerge Unlock full access with a free trial. ‘We built the cur tain wall, the exterior skin to test it. We tain conditions from the other. Both models 122
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moves of approaching each other draw trajectories of in made in order to see how it affects the buildin Models and building are associated in su vention? Under the pressure of the construction, and in front of once the architects, clients, and public see the the eyes of astonished workers and engineers in S eattle or think of the building. ‘The building is one moment in the proce Porto, architects constantly move back and forth between the building-under-construction and its models, comparif you build it, it’s just one moment, because ing, correcting and simultaneously updating them. ‘In lines. But we always go on and develop it. Porto, they have a model on the site, because it’s such a Maybe it also leads to something bad on som But there is no end to these things. And that complicated building that they can go and look at things in the model to better understand it and update it.’ ‘Even you look at the cctv and all these models, no the production phase is still subject to changes,’ argues really an end product, and none of them is re Kunlé. ‘So, if we realize that something is totally wrong at ning, and none of them can stand for the bu that point, we can still change the model after the build And everywhere you keep models that look d ing.’ To understand the Seattle Library, for instance, in Thus, the direction of the w hole design p terms of what the space would look like in three dimenan ultimate building: instead of beginning sions and to test the diamond seismic system installed and ending up with a building in a linear, between the platforms of the library, as well as the ramps progressive venture, design contains both You're Reading a Preview and the fabric of w-sections on the interior of the glass building as two events; each of them is a mom and aluminium skin, the architects built up a mock-up: becoming of the other, each of them emerge Unlock full access with a free trial. ‘We built the cur tain wall, the exterior skin to test it. We tain conditions from the other. Both models did also the book ramp. We basically did one bay of it and are defined as two states of an active matter we went from ground level, maybe 6 feet high, just to check ‘moments’ of it: one refines the other as they Download With Free Trial two different ways of rafting. And even the public was the two ends of the design continuum. Rathe invited to examine it, including disabled people who could a terminus , the building stands next to its mo test whether they could actually use the wheelchairs.’ cent or conterminous with them. That is wh Models, mock-ups and building stand side by side, and are tion of few models is always kept in the offic amended and improved at the same time. This points to construction site. the existence of a specific relationship between the models If we look more closely at the criss-cross and buildings, as seen under the oma spotlight. Building models and buildings at the oma , can we say wh and models stand together as two simultaneously present of invention looks like? Does it go from the m competitive arrangements in architectural design. There catalogue, from model effects to novel buildin is no way to get out of the model without getting into the from studio events to construction reality? O building, there is no way to get out of the building withhaps the other way around? Neither the model out getting into the model. The model serves as a way of seeing and envisioning the building because it ‘carries a 122 Interview with Carol, October 2002, OMA. 123 Interview with Kunlé, November 11, 2002, OMA. similar spirit or understanding’. Every change in it, every 124 Interview with Carol, October 2002, OMA. tiny adjustment is meant to influence the building to a 125 Interview with Ole, November 2002, OMA. certain extent. As architects from oma put it, the model is 126 Interview with Erez, November 2002, OMA. 122
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the building in an accelerated course, nor does the building systematically respond to the demands of an experimental model. The model is not an ideal for the building to follow, nor is the building an obedient disciple of the model guidance. Neither imitates or strictly pursues the other. The ‘monster model’ and th e building-to-be run side by side and, in the rush they ch ange pace, they make friends, they respond to other experimental studio events. As a model and a building refer to each other, they trace multifarious trajectories of invention. Architecture as office enterpri se
vented the library typology. Designers never there is no outside. Manhattan, Seattle, C brought into the office; their life is re-enact practice. The studio constitutes their world. one imaginary Reality within the walls of t Heer Bokelweg street, and another Reality one heterogeneous design world that genera This story tells us also something about Koo often overlooked. It is not by chance that wh through the interior glass wall of the office wit the entire world is ‘in here’. oma and Koolh studio as the world, a world that is to be re practice, a world that is to be reinvent ed by d 129
If we cannot say that the building strives to imitate the model, then we equally cannot maintain the statement 127 Koolhaas’s approach is often described as realist: ‘Koolhaas k that the model is a tool for generating reality. After all, architecture is supposed to look like when materialized. That Sign up to vote on this title what does it mean to produce realist architectu re? No and tries, like a realist painter, to make his buildings approach them He abides by the reality that he has taken as a model, one in the office can answer this question. ‘I have always Useful useful possible. Not You're Reading a Preview described his architecture as “realist” at some point.’ (Moneo, 200 struggled with the term “realistic”,’ says Ole, ‘because I 128 Interview with Ole, November 2002, OMA. don’t know if “realistic” really implies copying any reality, 129 That is the Rotterdam address of the Office for Metropolitan A Unlock full access with a free trial. since what one is dealing with is different degrees of ab 127
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the building in an accelerated course, nor does the building systematically respond to the demands of an experimental model. The model is not an ideal for the building to follow, nor is the building an obedient disciple of the model guidance. Neither imitates or strictly pursues the other. The ‘monster model’ and th e building-to-be run side by side and, in the rush they ch ange pace, they make friends, they respond to other experimental studio events. As a model and a building refer to each other, they trace multifarious trajectories of invention. Architecture as office enterpri se
Rem Koolhaas
Methods of MVRDV
Search document
vented the library typology. Designers never there is no outside. Manhattan, Seattle, C brought into the office; their life is re-enact practice. The studio constitutes their world. one imaginary Reality within the walls of t Heer Bokelweg street, and another Reality one heterogeneous design world that genera This story tells us also something about Koo often overlooked. It is not by chance that wh through the interior glass wall of the office wit the entire world is ‘in here’. oma and Koolh studio as the world, a world that is to be re practice, a world that is to be reinvent ed by d 129
If we cannot say that the building strives to imitate the model, then we equally cannot maintain the statement 127 Koolhaas’s approach is often described as realist: ‘Koolhaas k that the model is a tool for generating reality. After all, architecture is supposed to look like when materialized. That what does it mean to produce realist architectu re? No and tries, like a realist painter, to make his buildings approach them possible. He abides by the reality that he has taken as a model, one in the office can answer this question. ‘I have always You're Reading a Preview described his architecture as “realist” at some point.’ (Moneo, 200 struggled with the term “realistic”,’ says Ole, ‘because I 128 Interview with Ole, November 2002, OMA. don’t know if “realistic” really implies copying any reality, 129 That is the Rotterdam address of the Office for Metropolitan A full access with a free trial. since what one is dealing with is different degrees of abUnlock straction and, as I said, different degrees of interpretation. So, in a certain sense, there is no realistic representation Download With Free Trial of anything. Architecture remains a process of translation and further definition.’ We can argu e for the centrality of the ‘th e-model-inthe-studio’ in the oma ’s design. The events in the office generate numerous effects; they introduce life into the studio. Material inventions happen as a re-enactment of studio events. Thus a building is not supposed to represent a reality ‘out there’. Instead it tries to repeat, refer to and get closer to life as enacted in the office. It is not description, but enactment that guides the design process at the oma . The fact that there is no urban life ‘out there’, far from the studio, has been demonstrated by all those designers who never visited the Whitney site in Manhattan but kept on designing for it, by all those who never learned Spanish but built in Cordoba, and by those who never borrowed a book from the Seattle Library, but rein127
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On The Way To Porto
ing? What can this kind of story tell us abo culture? How can this mundane story of reu of what design invention is about? Going In February 2002 Rem took me for an office tour with a office, we can hear how architects reflect upo small group of museum professionals and curators who lect the effects of the Porto example. Ethn had been invited to a presentation. We were all on the speaking, I contemplate the importance of ground floor, where the office tour was about to begin. Rem related to the office working habits and th took a small-scale model and rotated it carefully in his model-inspired process of design invention. hands. Then he stopped for a moment and showed it to Having been produced for the private Dut Hans-Ulrich who stared at it and, without pausing his model travelled only from Rotterdam to its su camera for a second, said: ‘This is the Porto b uilding isn’t to meet the needs of a single person. Bein it?’ ‘Yes,’ replied Rem, and he told the story of the Porto mediator in their relationships, the model p model. The design originated in a commission for a house portant role in negotiations, sustaining every in suburban Rotterdam several years ago. The client, qualicussion – be it a trace of disagreement or col fied by Rem as ‘a typical Dutch Calvinist’, was obsessed by sion. The shift in scale after it was reused and Sign to vote this title order and tidiness and demanded a neat living area. The theup concert hallon in Porto greatly modified the house designed by the om a looked like a hunk of chiselled the model. It now to travel further to me useful Useful Nothad You're Reading a Preview rock, mounted on a big turntable to follow the sun. But of creating a more dynamic communal exper the client was not happy with the design and he dropped than respond only to the demands of a single Unlock full access with a free trial. the project just as the om a was entering a design competiscaled up-version, the model served as a medi
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Rem Koolhaas
Methods of MVRDV
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On The Way To Porto
86
ing? What can this kind of story tell us abo culture? How can this mundane story of reu of what design invention is about? Going In February 2002 Rem took me for an office tour with a office, we can hear how architects reflect upo small group of museum professionals and curators who lect the effects of the Porto example. Ethn had been invited to a presentation. We were all on the speaking, I contemplate the importance of ground floor, where the office tour was about to begin. Rem related to the office working habits and th took a small-scale model and rotated it carefully in his model-inspired process of design invention. hands. Then he stopped for a moment and showed it to Having been produced for the private Dut Hans-Ulrich who stared at it and, without pausing his model travelled only from Rotterdam to its su camera for a second, said: ‘This is the Porto b uilding isn’t to meet the needs of a single person. Bein it?’ ‘Yes,’ replied Rem, and he told the story of the Porto mediator in their relationships, the model p model. The design originated in a commission for a house portant role in negotiations, sustaining every in suburban Rotterdam several years ago. The client, qualicussion – be it a trace of disagreement or col fied by Rem as ‘a typical Dutch Calvinist’, was obsessed by sion. The shift in scale after it was reused and order and tidiness and demanded a neat living area. The the concert hall in Porto greatly modified the house designed by the om a looked like a hunk of chiselled the model. It now had to travel further to me You're Reading a Preview rock, mounted on a big turntable to follow the sun. But of creating a more dynamic communal exper the client was not happy with the design and he dropped than respond only to the demands of a single Unlock full access with a free trial. the project just as the om a was entering a design competiscaled up-version, the model served as a medi tion for the Porto concert hall. Thus, the abandoned and architects and city planning commissions, temporarily forgotten model of the private house came up Rotterdam, engineers and clients. The mode Download With Free Trial to the office and re-entered the cycles of design. LingerPortugal on numerous occasions and came ing on the tables of models for months, it was finally taken formed. It always travelled with many oth with new as sumptions, reshaped, refreshed and adjusted. were exhibited alon g with it, and different p Blowing up its scale and adapting it, the core became the were invited to assess them. The bigger main auditorium, with the foyers, rehearsal halls and actors involved in its evaluation, the more offices packed into the leftover space around it. That is models’ trajectory became. how a rejected concept was modified to accommodate a Interpreting the trajectory of the Porto m concert hall. It entered a competition and won it: th e Casa tects situated it within the overall office projec da Música in Porto. became the first building of the om a new li One would never expect such a mundane story of the oma classic line, and oma shape-y line invention to be told. Stories of reuse, of scaling up of (hahaha). Porto was the first building that w rejected concepts, of recollecting and recycling existing I mean expressive in form. Cordoba followed models are not told that often, and certainly not in public. did Flick and Whitney, whereas lacma will What we usually hear is stories of daring visions, of bold project. This means that the idea is cast in a s leaps of imagination, of ground-breaking ideas traversing The Embassy in Berlin will be also a classi the designers’ minds. Why is the Porto story so interest Thus, not only the specific material trajectory
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model is taken seriously in the office but it is also inter years ago, I am sure, or maybe took a piece preted as playing an important role in the social trajectory it.’ Looking at the extended list of reused pro of the oma , and is considered significant in the office life piled in my notes, I started examining the m cycle of design inventions. office through different eyes. Instead of wond To unravel the Porto story of reuse, let us go back to is the idea behind it?’ I asked ‘What is the “ the om a setting. In its dense foam environment, models architects go back to?’ or ‘What is it that archit and try-outs are ‘… thrown everywhere’, explains Erez as pret and reassemble anew and afresh in these we tour the office together, ‘so that somebody else can use These stories of reuse show that even if them for another project or for another experiment.’ They to be realized, it is still important for oma arch can capture time, unfold space, and seize the designers’ the traces of design, as new design solutions a attention. The models spark their imaginations and make in the models, and the foam try-outs materia them gather around. As traces of the design process, they design insights. Going back and reusing an o are carefully maintained in the office environment so th at bearing model is synonymous with efficiency they could be reappraised and used again for other design the architects that all the efforts and work inv projects, for exhibitions or publications. A new shape can rewarded, that the research that has been d Sign upthat to vote on this title emerge as a result of material synergies of exiting co-isoideas emerged will not die, and that the sle lated bubbles. An abandoned foam try-out or stu dy model spent in the company of a foam-cutter, a com Useful Not useful You're Reading a Preview will linger on the tables or the shelves of the office, and couple of fellow architects from the same bub ‘Rem could pick it a week later with different assumption. been in vain. They can be used for another p Unlock full access with a free trial. And then, there is something that would be difficult to can have a life.
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Experiencing Absence
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Rem Koolhaas
Methods of MVRDV
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model is taken seriously in the office but it is also inter years ago, I am sure, or maybe took a piece preted as playing an important role in the social trajectory it.’ Looking at the extended list of reused pro of the oma , and is considered significant in the office life piled in my notes, I started examining the m cycle of design inventions. office through different eyes. Instead of wond To unravel the Porto story of reuse, let us go back to is the idea behind it?’ I asked ‘What is the “ the om a setting. In its dense foam environment, models architects go back to?’ or ‘What is it that archit and try-outs are ‘… thrown everywhere’, explains Erez as pret and reassemble anew and afresh in these we tour the office together, ‘so that somebody else can use These stories of reuse show that even if them for another project or for another experiment.’ They to be realized, it is still important for oma arch can capture time, unfold space, and seize the designers’ the traces of design, as new design solutions a attention. The models spark their imaginations and make in the models, and the foam try-outs materia them gather around. As traces of the design process, they design insights. Going back and reusing an o are carefully maintained in the office environment so th at bearing model is synonymous with efficiency they could be reappraised and used again for other design the architects that all the efforts and work inv projects, for exhibitions or publications. A new shape can rewarded, that the research that has been d emerge as a result of material synergies of exiting co-isoideas that emerged will not die, and that the sle lated bubbles. An abandoned foam try-out or stu dy model spent in the company of a foam-cutter, a com You're Reading a Preview will linger on the tables or the shelves of the office, and couple of fellow architects from the same bub ‘Rem could pick it a week later with different assumption. been in vain. They can be used for another p full access with a free trial. And then, there is something that would be difficult Unlock to can have a life. define. It would be, I think, the successful something It is also important for designers to have a when aesthetics and intelligence come together with the ing point, when struggling to generate a new i Download With Free Trial model.’ Yet, if there is something in a model that allows acting with a chunk of foam or a comp uter. architects to go back to it and rediscover its potential, the ‘In design process we also need the previo question that increases my curiosity is: how often does arrive at this stage. You cannot just create a this happen in design? Does the Porto story tell us anyscheme out of the blue. When you do desig thing in particular about the oma and about the nature of schemes that are abandoned, hundreds of mo design? Or is it just an exclusive story, fancied by Rem and recognized within the process. They are just disliked by most of the designers at the oma , of how a small steps in the process.’ Dutch model was scaled up and changed its meaning on Design does not start from scratch. The m the way to Porto? are not only kept because they can be recycl I quickly noticed that the list of the stories of reuse – and for that they are deliberately maintaine could be extended further. The Guangzhou Opera Hou se prolific ontological milieu for design inventio was the result of reuse of an old opera project called Kadi that the office developed but did not win: ‘And it was a little 130 Interview with Olga, 17 April 2002, OMA. 131 Interview with Erez, April 2002, OMA. bit different, but Rem wanted to go back to the same initial 132 Interview with Olga, October 2002, OMA. idea. So, we just took it. And I don’t know who did the first 133 Interview with Erez, November 2002, OMA. shape, but it came from there. Somebody sketched it ten 134 Interview with Kunlé, September 2002, OMA. 133
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also enable different forms of reuse, which never grow up into stories as glorious as the Porto story of reuse. The reuse of an old project or competition entry, entry, typically an unsuccessful one, can concern only distinct elements of it, not the entire concept. For instance, om a designers designers used a façade component of Prada San Francisco for scheme b of the new hitney project as a basis for further research. That is how the reuse was discussed in the office. One morning in September 2002, Rem came and in formed the Whitney team that ‘Prada San Francisco is not going to happen’, and h e said: ‘You ‘You can use this material for the skin of Whitney.’ A team discussion followed: To erez: It’s squeezed; we have to clarify the prop ortions. To do the connections on the ground level; so we can use the Prada San Francisco scheme! It’s dramatic… [to the others] Let’s look now at this section. Maybe we don’t need to add another floor from Prada San Francisco, because here we have only four floors. I don’t know how many we have in the original one of Prada and we need all the stages. 135
kunlé: Every night and day, we want to t
things, test some existing materials to se look on different buildings. The façade of P because these materials have already been start by using it, just to test a direction further possibilities for our project. I’m going to use Prada just as a direction for r erez: You You can use the pr ecedents of different office because you have them. It doesn’t m use the ideas. When they were done, th own ideas; their own things that made an And we have just looked at this now: ‘ok like that?’ We take this as a starting poin ence to the building, as an element of the b sometimes you take different elements an Sign up to vote on this other projects. The title Porto project was ex was a small Not that had never been Useful houseuseful took the entire project. Yes, it’s happenin in a laboratory like the oma . You You know, kno w, you ple, you experiment, you go around, you
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also enable different forms of reuse, which never grow up into stories as glorious as the Porto story of reuse. The reuse of an old project or competition entry, entry, typically an unsuccessful one, can concern only distinct elements of it, not the entire concept. For instance, om a designers designers used a façade component of Prada San Francisco for scheme b of the new hitney project as a basis for further research. That is how the reuse was discussed in the office. One morning in September 2002, Rem came and in formed the Whitney team that ‘Prada San Francisco is not going to happen’, and h e said: ‘You ‘You can use this material for the skin of Whitney.’ A team discussion followed: To erez: It’s squeezed; we have to clarify the prop ortions. To do the connections on the ground level; so we can use the Prada San Francisco scheme! It’s dramatic… [to the others] Let’s look now at this section. Maybe we don’t need to add another floor from Prada San Francisco, because here we have only four floors. I don’t know how many we have in the original one of Prada and we need all the stages. kunlé: Rem also talked about the size of the options. Maybe we have to see that. [he points to the diagram] We should look at Prada, maybe there are so me inierez: We tial ideas we don’t know. ok . Let’s do that. We have the two boxes. In terms of proportions, we have our project and it’s it’s successful. So, we can pro bably use some of the ideas from Prada. But it’s up to us to see how we can incorporate these schemes and proportions. ay: Is that going to change a lot of things in the work on the new hitney? erez: No, it’s going to change just a little bit. It’s normal to put some ideas we have already explored in the office into another project.’ After Rem’s Rem’s intervention and the group discussion that followed, I interviewed Kunlé and Erez separately, questioning especially the habit of reusing an unsuccessful project and implementing it into the on-going new hitney design: 135
136
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project into another. Thus, when architects talk about reusing an element, they do not mean literally taking an element as such, removing the Prada façade and sticking it to the new hitney model, thus repeating it without transformations in a different design context, but rather using it as a basis for further explorations, testing and developing new design directions. Recent projects by oma , be they successful, dismissed or on hold, work as a conceptual environment for designing architects, and serve as enticement for furthering design research. They have a life in the ‘laboratory space’ of the oma before retiring to the quiet archival boxes. The one-room space with no strict boundaries between projects facilitates fruitful encounters among various project bubbles. It enables things to fly across tables and have a happy landing on another table where they trigger a new starting point of design investigation. Here again, the crowded foam environment works as an inspiring milieu for the current projects, stimulating invention. That is how an office office style is generated: generated: to use the Prada Prada
Rem Koolhaas
Methods of MVRDV
Search document
kunlé: Every night and day, we want to t
things, test some existing materials to se look on different buildings. The façade of P because these materials have already been start by using it, just to test a direction further possibilities for our project. I’m going to use Prada just as a direction for r erez: You You can use the pr ecedents of different office because you have them. It doesn’t m use the ideas. When they were done, th own ideas; their own things that made an And we have just looked at this now: ‘ok like that?’ We take this as a starting poin ence to the building, as an element of the b sometimes you take different elements an other projects. The Porto project was ex was a small house that had never been took the entire project. Yes, it’s happenin in a laboratory like the oma . You You know, kno w, you ple, you experiment, you go around, you happening in the other projects. It’s not th front of your computer and you don’t k going on around you. In the legendary Porto case, which nearly eve interviewed mentioned in one way or anothe project was reused; scaled up, adapted to di the entire project travelled to Porto. In the Pra case, the perspective of reuse makes the projec a shorter distance – from one table of models from the Prada to the Whitney working bu travelling across adjacent models within the means testing a direction to investigate fu possibilities rather than a direct implement 138
135 Prada San Francisco, San Francisco, USA, 2000; New Prada on the West Coast; study. 136 Team discussion, discussion, September 2002, OMA 137 Interview with Kunlé, September 2002, OMA. 138 Interview with Erez, September 2002, OMA. OMA.
infra-language is reminiscent of a playground Alain tells us that that the reuse of models models could from a misunderstanding: ala in : Foam models spark your imagination then computer models usually do. We h situations, when one misinterpretation of m up in a solution for a building. ay: That’s really very interesting. Can you give ala in : ‘I am thinking of Seattle Library. I did my friend did it. They made a model o it was misinterpreted as as the whole building you know the library? It’s It’s really a beauti And then it became a solution. Misinterpretation and mistakes allow new created and open up new possibilities for the Sign vote onscenarios this title beup by to triggering unforeseen in the tectural plans. They point out the delicately a Useful Not useful ance between the manipulation of the foam m result, which, combined with differences in th execution, make the scale models of the buildi 142
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Rem Koolhaas
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project into another. Thus, when architects talk about reusing an element, they do not mean literally taking an element as such, removing the Prada façade and sticking it to the new hitney model, thus repeating it without transformations in a different design context, but rather using it as a basis for further explorations, testing and developing new design directions. Recent projects by oma , be they successful, dismissed or on hold, work as a conceptual environment for designing architects, and serve as enticement for furthering design research. They have a life in the ‘laboratory space’ of the oma before retiring to the quiet archival boxes. The one-room space with no strict boundaries between projects facilitates fruitful encounters among various project bubbles. It enables things to fly across tables and have a happy landing on another table where they trigger a new starting point of design investigation. Here again, the crowded foam environment works as an inspiring milieu for the current projects, stimulating invention. That is how an office office style is generated: generated: to use the Prada Prada idea for the Whitney, designers from the Whitney bubble have to learn what the Prada concept was about. This is the outcome of another working bubble that they will reinsert in an ongoing project. This ensures continuity and efficiency, trains the architects and generates something that will be defined post-factum by the architectural critics as being the oma style. style. The practice of reuse also generates an internal infra-language in the office – a particular language especially created by the designers to facilitate understanding and communication when things fly between bubbles. As Olga explains, they often say: ‘Shall we do it more like Pinault, or should it be more like the Kunsthal?’ Rem also wants to reuse things and to change simultaneously. ‘He is greedy with inventions.’ The projects are used as point of reference to a certain design specificity – site solution, a material invention or anything else – that can further inspire the design process. According to the architects at the oma , this specific office
infra-language is reminiscent of a playground Alain tells us that that the reuse of models models could from a misunderstanding: ala in : Foam models spark your imagination then computer models usually do. We h situations, when one misinterpretation of m up in a solution for a building. ay: That’s really very interesting. Can you give ala in : ‘I am thinking of Seattle Library. I did my friend did it. They made a model o it was misinterpreted as as the whole building you know the library? It’s It’s really a beauti And then it became a solution. Misinterpretation and mistakes allow new created and open up new possibilities for the be by triggering scenarios unforeseen in the tectural plans. They point out the delicately a ance between the manipulation of the foam m result, which, combined with differences in th execution, make the scale models of the buildi diverse. erez: I think that models also allow more m when we make mistakes, we also find som when you find something, it’s it’s another opp ay: Can you give me an example of how y something something new for the building after mak with models? erez: Sometimes you do something and then you say say ‘ooops’, ‘ooops’, and you put it aside, aside, and so it and sees another idea in what you did. happened with this model of nato. An happening in the office. That is also anoth of the models – that there are always mis
want to experiment experiment,, this this office allows you to do do it. it. That’s why it works. There is a period of time during the design when you can experiment. I think that Rem is aware of that and he lets us do these things. In the interviews with Sarah, the nato model is often mentioned as an example of a mistake: sarah: One specific example of a mistake that I can re member is that Erez made a model, a kind of conceptual model for a conference room during the nato project. Even though it wasn’t a final option, a complete option, we said ‘ ok , we are going to develop this and go with this option.’ There w ere a lot of things we liked in it, especially the quality of the light penetrating the model and the way it created space within it, the space below the conference centre. And so, along with the mistake you can make discoveries. We take these things, we discover and translate those into ideas for the next model and the next options. Thus the nato model seems to be the perfect example of discovering through mistakes. The bubbles in the model
redefine the experimental conditions, and all figurations of assumptions. As Ole explains: not lock yourself into the acceptance of cert tions and hope for slick interpretations only. afraid of making a lot of mistakes along th think anybody who doesn’t do anything wro do anything right. It’s an essential part of th accept that certain things have to go wrong enable something really right to happen.’ this relationship between making models and takes, between doing and undergoing, is to turally. Thus, architects share one understanding vention: You cannot create an intelligent bui bu the blue. The new shape stems from an old m Sign up to vote on this titleor a set of exist take, a misunderstanding, constraints. Invention happens in meticulous Useful Not useful tation with the blue foam, carefully archiving and preserving the models, then reusing, rea weighing them up against other projects
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139 Fondation Pinault, Paris, France, 2001; private museum on si Renault factory; competition. 140 Kunsthal, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 1992; museum for tempora 141 Interview with Olga, October 2002, OMA. 142 Interview with Alain, 17 April 2002, OMA.
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want to experiment experiment,, this this office allows you to do do it. it. That’s why it works. There is a period of time during the design when you can experiment. I think that Rem is aware of that and he lets us do these things. In the interviews with Sarah, the nato model is often mentioned as an example of a mistake: sarah: One specific example of a mistake that I can re member is that Erez made a model, a kind of conceptual model for a conference room during the nato project. Even though it wasn’t a final option, a complete option, we said ‘ ok , we are going to develop this and go with this option.’ There w ere a lot of things we liked in it, especially the quality of the light penetrating the model and the way it created space within it, the space below the conference centre. And so, along with the mistake you can make discoveries. We take these things, we discover and translate those into ideas for the next model and the next options. Thus the nato model seems to be the perfect example of discovering through mistakes. The bubbles in the model were also produced by mistake, as other architects recall. One of the designers tried to cast transparent material inside the large blocks but it didn’t move out. Then one of the girls from the nato team saw this and came out with the idea of setting the transparent material the other way round. So, following the failure, they inversed the initial concept and placed the concaves inside the model. That particular mistake also helped the architects develop the final competition models made of closed boxes with bowls situated within the box structures. The malleability malleability of foam makes it difficult to cut at a particular angle, thus entailing tentative and accidental gestures, even failures, in the execution of numerous model-making operations. Yet this is also the reason why architects use this particular material to think with – as a quick mediator of both successful and unsuccessful execution. Mistakes also happen in the process of manipulating other materials, in casting and interpreting the first try-outs. They are significant because they 143
144
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Rem Koolhaas
Methods of MVRDV
Search document
redefine the experimental conditions, and all figurations of assumptions. As Ole explains: not lock yourself into the acceptance of cert tions and hope for slick interpretations only. afraid of making a lot of mistakes along th think anybody who doesn’t do anything wro do anything right. It’s an essential part of th accept that certain things have to go wrong enable something really right to happen.’ this relationship between making models and takes, between doing and undergoing, is to turally. Thus, architects share one understanding vention: You cannot create an intelligent bui bu the blue. The new shape stems from an old m take, a misunderstanding, or a set of exist constraints. Invention happens in meticulous tation with the blue foam, carefully archiving and preserving the models, then reusing, rea weighing them up against other projects interpreting and misinterpreting them so that ally acquire new meaning. Creating requir to recollect and to recycle, to interpret and redefine and reassemble. In the process of do ideas spark the designers’ imagination, imagination, new sh To design is to recycle
This shor t story of model reuse pr ovides a derstanding of design. Rather than being a si tion of bright ideas and daring leaps of th imagination, or of social and cultural conte shape emanates as an original and locally per of attachment, connecting and interrelatin gestures, objects, bodies and materials in t 143 Interview with Erez, April 2002, OMA. 144 Interview with Sarah, April 2002, OMA. 145 Interview with Ole, June 2002, 2002, OMA.
process of design. There is nothing novel and radical in the acts of design invention that were witnessed in the office. To generate a new design concept or building does not imply an ex nihilo creation. Instead, the stories of reuse tell us, design means to redesign. Imitation and reiteration constitute the matrix of invention. As Ole summarized this feature of design: ‘It is a process of continuous redoing. Nothing is built to represent, but everything is redone. Quantity of foam does no t mean a lack of intelligence in a certain sense. I think it is not a process of endless try-outs and errors, but continuous redefinition of what the actual parameters or ambitions of the project are. It is important to be able to learn and see what is fruitful and what has simply come into the end of its own life cycle, and then just continue and requestion, reinterpret the building Sign up to vote on this title from this.’ Thus, reusing, recollecting, reinterpreting, adapting, remaking – these are all synon yms for creating. Useful Not useful You're Reading a Preview It is impossible to describe the process of invention as being separate from the course of design. As a building Unlock full access with a free trial. praised by the critics for its intellectual ardour and sensual 146
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Experiencing Absence
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Rem Koolhaas
Methods of MVRDV
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process of design. There is nothing novel and radical in the acts of design invention that were witnessed in the office. To generate a new design concept or building does not imply an ex nihilo creation. Instead, the stories of reuse tell us, design means to redesign. Imitation and reiteration constitute the matrix of invention. As Ole summarized this feature of design: ‘It is a process of continuous redoing. Nothing is built to represent, but everything is redone. Quantity of foam does no t mean a lack of intelligence in a certain sense. I think it is not a process of endless try-outs and errors, but continuous redefinition of what the actual parameters or ambitions of the project are. It is important to be able to learn and see what is fruitful and what has simply come into the end of its own life cycle, and then just continue and requestion, reinterpret the building from this.’ Thus, reusing, recollecting, reinterpreting, adapting, remaking – these are all synon yms for creating. You're Reading a Preview It is impossible to describe the process of invention as being separate from the course of design. As a building Unlock full access with a free trial. praised by the critics for its intellectual ardour and sensual beauty, the Porto Casa da Musica can still be treated as a perfect expression of Koolhaas’s vision. Yet, behind the Download With Free Trial eulogy and the enthusiasm of the critics, there is a mundane story of reuse and recycling, of reinterrogation and reinterpretation, that is to be told in the context of des ign practice and reconnected to design experience. There is no real disjunction between the designers’ ideas and their material practices. To understand a building we need to reconnect visions and design routines, imagination and mistakes. 146
146 Interview with Ole, June 2002, OMA.
Reconnecting Practice And Meaning
In the prevailing analyses of contemporary theory and critique, buildings are interpre separate from both the conditions of their ma design experience of the makers. A wall of c pretations is built around them, rendering t significance almost opaque. Whenever one ta theoretical influences upon Koolhaas’s work, w speculates on how the culture he is building fo in a built structure or an urban concept, one izes that architecture is being remitted to a sep cut off from that vital association with desi and experiences. This compartmentalization separation of design practice from insight, of from making. Whenever an account of Koo tackles his great urban ideas, powerful insight Sign up to vote on this imagination sparked by title a variety of psycholog factors, his design usefulis disregarded an Useful Notpractice You're Reading a Preview performance of his office is rarely tackled as b cant for the understanding of his buildings Unlock full access with a free trial. concepts.
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Reconnecting Practice And Meaning
In the prevailing analyses of contemporary theory and critique, buildings are interpre separate from both the conditions of their ma design experience of the makers. A wall of c pretations is built around them, rendering t significance almost opaque. Whenever one ta theoretical influences upon Koolhaas’s work, w speculates on how the culture he is building fo in a built structure or an urban concept, one izes that architecture is being remitted to a sep cut off from that vital association with desi and experiences. This compartmentalization separation of design practice from insight, of from making. Whenever an account of Koo tackles his great urban ideas, powerful insight imagination sparked by a variety of psycholog factors, his design practice is disregarded an You're Reading a Preview performance of his office is rarely tackled as b cant for the understanding of his buildings Unlock full access with a free trial. concepts. The stories told here aimed at establishing between some oma projects and the design Download With Free Trial that accompanied their making; connectio need of enactment and action, of meaning Traced as two-way associations, they tang mundane oma design trajectories and differ and cultures, moving constantly from the kn known, always afraid of being interrupted, u wrong, displaying the knower and the work needed to interrup t or create connecti the oma and the world. Thus, at any moment ethnography of the om a , we did not witness a from face-to-face interactions to macrost abstract contexts outside architecture, from p computer screen or the models in the arch genuine cultures, societies, nations. We rat same method for all the levels. Follow the arc tentative moves, failures and mistakes, their m
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cautious search for new materials, adjustments of instruhere with the pure purpose of generating in descriptions of invention which would keep t ments, scenarios for reuse; here is the social element (it is of design experiences and even the roughness not ‘out there’), it is in all those simplified, routinized, repetitive elements. It is not made outside the practice of language far from the reach of the prevailing Koolhaas, but within the office: in the process of making ive theories of design. Deliberately circum and scaling a model, recycling a piece of foam, retouching meta-reflexivity that would have increased t an image on the computer screen; these are all social phemethodological reflections, I simply described v nomena. A sense of American culture or Chinese moderpractices without sticking to references outs nity can be gained in the process of making and scaling ture, while also relying on the assumption tha models, circulating, classifying and archiving them, susreflexive accounts will be self-exemplifying. taining and reusing foam, recollecting visuals on th e tables Drawing on mundane stories of design, I of models, in design reports and concept books. To underinnovation permeates design practice, how ev stand the societies produced by architects, we need to look niques become central to design across pro at them from the inside out. standards for the way in which buildings and The stories I told here also made an attempt to restore nomena are to be seen, the way a building Sign up to vote on this continuity between the intensified form of experience that becomes graspable, real.title It is an attempt to tra a design work is and the everyday events, doings, trails, tural invention,Not is usually considered to Useful via whichuseful You're Reading a Preview sufferings, mistakes that are part of design experience. To the concrete details of the architectural understand architecture, one must begin with it in the not exist only as an ideal for architectural exc Unlock full access with a free trial. raw. If we talk about a project, its accomplishment, its end, as a number of workaday choices: which instru 147
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Experiencing Absence
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Methods of MVRDV
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cautious search for new materials, adjustments of instruhere with the pure purpose of generating in descriptions of invention which would keep t ments, scenarios for reuse; here is the social element (it is of design experiences and even the roughness not ‘out there’), it is in all those simplified, routinized, repetitive elements. It is not made outside the practice of language far from the reach of the prevailing Koolhaas, but within the office: in the process of making ive theories of design. Deliberately circum and scaling a model, recycling a piece of foam, retouching meta-reflexivity that would have increased t an image on the computer screen; these are all social phemethodological reflections, I simply described v nomena. A sense of American culture or Chinese moderpractices without sticking to references outs nity can be gained in the process of making and scaling ture, while also relying on the assumption tha models, circulating, classifying and archiving them, susreflexive accounts will be self-exemplifying. taining and reusing foam, recollecting visuals on th e tables Drawing on mundane stories of design, I of models, in design reports and concept books. To underinnovation permeates design practice, how ev stand the societies produced by architects, we need to look niques become central to design across pro at them from the inside out. standards for the way in which buildings and The stories I told here also made an attempt to restore nomena are to be seen, the way a building continuity between the intensified form of experience that becomes graspable, real. It is an attempt to tra a design work is and the everyday events, doings, trails, tural invention, which is usually considered to You're Reading a Preview sufferings, mistakes that are part of design experience. To via the concrete details of the architectural understand architecture, one must begin with it in the not exist only as an ideal for architectural exc Unlock full access with a free trial. raw. If we talk about a project, its accomplishment, its end, as a number of workaday choices: which instru would be the simple coincidence of the initial models and whether or not to retouch a photograph with their final realization. Yet, unravelling how a building hap which model to reuse, how to stage a present Download With Free Trial pens and travels in design is the opposite of showing how archives to pick up, which option to elimi precisely it has been created and realized. Trajectory stands mundane stories of invention recalling these for the opposite of what a project is. Following the trajecHurrah-moments of architecture-making w tories of ‘monster models’ and buildings, architects and they were replaced by routine gestures of mo foam, we witnessed no gradual p rogression toward reality, recycling, assembling, recollecting, discussin no realization of plans and projects, but vertiginous hesiHaving followed these stories, can you tation, fundamental meandering of architects and visuals, design in terms of creation and constructio going back and reworking, recollecting and recycling, any longer. ‘Creator’ always implies an archit rather than going forward and projecting in time. The at the beginning of the creation vector, origin different trajectories traced here show the richness of design tion. ‘Creation’ implies a genius able to cre reality and the different modes of existence of design Designing requires many more skills as well works. attention to the details instead of relying on By choosing the genre of short stories, my intentions subjective imagination and the grand gesture were humble: I did not try to explain the oma practice or Koolhaas’s approach; nor did I attempt to grapple 147 Here I follow Bruno Latour’s understanding of the social as with the gen uine nature of design. This genre was used rather than as a separate domain (See Latour, 2005b). 147
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pated creativity. A building is not obtained in a double- click itself to semiotics: it is made to be interpreted language of signs. Yet, a close look at desi instant of creation or construction, but through numershows that there are no two distinctive ways ous little operations of shaping the foam, scaling it and refining its texture, adjusting the foam-cutters and other an architectural object, i.e., one through its in riality, the other through its more aesthetic o devices, classifying and reusing old models, struggling to aspects. To design is not simply to add meanin repeat tentative experimental results and generate a new material. Therefore to grasp architectural work required passive, and technical matter. The material oma project, of every model or foam try-ou for our stories, it was essential to devote meticulous attenmeaning with it. tion to the specific trajectories of models, to the minute The stories also outlined that design neve movements of the foam, to the various ways a model compels its makers, to the series of dismissed projects, to the scratch. There is no need for the creative p unfortunate moves of execution. entirely revolutionized, for the architect to h mastery over the materials, to predict experi The problem of interpretation o f Koolhaas’s architecout mistakes. Design experience suggests an u ture is, I argue, rooted in his practice – he is not the discoverer, the unique creator, but one of the inventors of modesty that is never accounted for with care Sign updoes to vote on thisgrand title gestures of radic – it not require these buildings-to-be. Let the critics still interpret his from the past, but small operations of re-collec architecture through the narrow meta-reflexive lens of useful Useful Not You're Reading a Preview the irreducible uniqueness of his personality, Surrealismbits of projects and concepts, reusing, recycl inspired, rooted in his Dutch-ness and individual approach. preting, rethinking; the ‘re-’ stands at the hea Unlock full access with a free trial. There is no fundamental break with architect The master architect is not a lone genius, but the setter 148
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Methods of MVRDV
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pated creativity. A building is not obtained in a double- click itself to semiotics: it is made to be interpreted language of signs. Yet, a close look at desi instant of creation or construction, but through numershows that there are no two distinctive ways ous little operations of shaping the foam, scaling it and refining its texture, adjusting the foam-cutters and other an architectural object, i.e., one through its in riality, the other through its more aesthetic o devices, classifying and reusing old models, struggling to aspects. To design is not simply to add meanin repeat tentative experimental results and generate a new material. Therefore to grasp architectural work required passive, and technical matter. The material oma project, of every model or foam try-ou for our stories, it was essential to devote meticulous attenmeaning with it. tion to the specific trajectories of models, to the minute The stories also outlined that design neve movements of the foam, to the various ways a model compels its makers, to the series of dismissed projects, to the scratch. There is no need for the creative p unfortunate moves of execution. entirely revolutionized, for the architect to h mastery over the materials, to predict experi The problem of interpretation o f Koolhaas’s architecout mistakes. Design experience suggests an u ture is, I argue, rooted in his practice – he is not the discoverer, the unique creator, but one of the inventors of modesty that is never accounted for with care – it does not require grand gestures of radic these buildings-to-be. Let the critics still interpret his from the past, but small operations of re-collec architecture through the narrow meta-reflexive lens of You're Reading a Preview the irreducible uniqueness of his personality, Surrealismbits of projects and concepts, reusing, recycl inspired, rooted in his Dutch-ness and individual approach. preting, rethinking; the ‘re-’ stands at the hea Unlock full access with a free trial. There is no fundamental break with architect The master architect is not a lone genius, but the setter of a specific studio practice; his buildings are born in the tions or accumulated office traditions. No aud studio world. There is no solitary perception or self violation is needed for a new design to emerge Download With Free Trial examination; design takes place within a larger spectrum, are small repetitive routines; there is alway mobilizing the senses of many, just as the construction of modest and something counteractive in desig a building is always distributed within a collective of engiOpposing arbitrary symbolic meaning and neers, builders, contractors, building committees, users ter’ will not lead us to a better understanding and architects. Follow the trajectories of models and ture. If critical thinkers still argue that the Po architects and you can witness the centrality of the studio is a unique expression of Koolhaas’s most auda in the process of invention at the oma . The entire oma ing, a building whose intellectual ardour is m design work revolves around life as it is staged in the sensual beauty, or qualify the Seattle Library office: in model-making, in the travels of the model, in structivist building par excellence , the bravest studio events and situations of reuse. There, th e architects in the usa over the last couple of decades, all are performers and spectators and architecture becomes pretations do is to segregate the symbo lic feat part of the performance that w e view. buildings from their material and physical a The stories told here also demonstrate the irrelevance the tentative trajectories of their models and of the modernist opposition between what is social, symbolic, subjective, lived, and what is material, real, objective 148 On architectural creativity as emerging in a moment of solitud and factual. In architectural theory, design easily lends concealment, see Silvetti, 1982. 148
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ical vibrancy of the oma architectural environment. No euphoric eulogy or overjoyed interpretations of finished design works, of buildings that are constructed and urban concepts that are being tested, can assist their understanding. If you happen to be in Seattle you can still enjoy the Public Library there without knowing anything about the design experiments that took place in the oma some years before it was built, without witnessing the trajectory of its model, the test of the micro-diamond pattern of the metal mesh and the mock-up of the ramp. If you happen to be in Porto, you can still enjoy the Casa da Musica without knowing anything about the tribulations of its scale model and its metamorphoses from a Dutch private house to a public building in Portugal. You can still appreciate a building, like or dislike it, praise or dismiss it, without knowing anything about the design experience that made it happen; but you cannot understand a building without You're taking these design experiences into account.
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ical vibrancy of the oma architectural environment. No euphoric eulogy or overjoyed interpretations of finished design works, of buildings that are constructed and urban concepts that are being tested, can assist their understanding. If you happen to be in Seattle you can still enjoy the Public Library there without knowing anything about the design experiments that took place in the oma some years before it was built, without witnessing the trajectory of its model, the test of the micro-diamond pattern of the metal mesh and the mock-up of the ramp. If you happen to be in Porto, you can still enjoy the Casa da Musica without knowing anything about the tribulations of its scale model and its metamorphoses from a Dutch private house to a public building in Portugal. You can still appreciate a building, like or dislike it, praise or dismiss it, without knowing anything about the design experience that made it happen; but you cannot understand a building without You're taking these design experiences into account.
Rem Koolhaas
Methods of MVRDV
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Reading a Preview
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References
Alpers, Svetlana, Rembrandt’s Enterprise. The Studio a London 1988, Thames & Hudson Ltd.
Becker, Howard S., ‘Art As Collective Action’, Amer Review 1974, 39(6): 767-76. Becker, Howard. S., Art Worlds , Berkeley 1982, Univ California Press. Blau, Judith R., Architects and Firms: a Sociological Per Architectural Practice, Cambridge 1984, mit Press Bonfilio, Paul, Fallingwater: the Model , New York Borden, I. and Rendell, J. (eds.), Inter Sections: Archit Histories and Critical Theories , London and New Y Sign up to vote on this title Routledge. Bourdieu, Pierre, ‘The Useful Not Berber usefulHouse’, pp. 98-110 You're Reading a Preview (ed.), Rules and Meanings: An Anthropology of Ever Harmondsworth 1971, Penguin. Unlock full access with a free trial. Bredekamp, in Rappolt, M. and Violette, R. (eds),
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Alpers, Svetlana, Rembrandt’s Enterprise. The Studio a London 1988, Thames & Hudson Ltd.
Becker, Howard S., ‘Art As Collective Action’, Amer Review 1974, 39(6): 767-76. Becker, Howard. S., Art Worlds , Berkeley 1982, Univ California Press. Blau, Judith R., Architects and Firms: a Sociological Per Architectural Practice, Cambridge 1984, mit Press Bonfilio, Paul, Fallingwater: the Model , New York Borden, I. and Rendell, J. (eds.), Inter Sections: Archit Histories and Critical Theories , London and New Y Routledge. Bourdieu, Pierre, ‘The Berber House’, pp. 98-110 You're Reading a Preview (ed.), Rules and Meanings: An Anthropology of Ever Harmondsworth 1971, Penguin. Unlock full access with a free trial. Bredekamp, in Rappolt, M. and Violette, R. (eds), mit Press, 2005. Busch, Akiko, The Art of the Architectural Model , New Download With Free Trial Design Press.
Callon, Michel, ‘Le travail de la conception en archit tions Les Cahiers de la recherche architecturale (37 Chaslin, Francois, Deux conversation avec Rem Koolha Paris 2001, Sens & Tonka. Colquhoun, Alan, Essays in Architectural Criticism: M Architecture and Historical Change, Cambridge Crickhowell, Nicholas, Opera House lottery. Zaha Had Cardiff Bay Project , Cardiff 1997, University of W Cuff, Dana, Architecture: the Story of Practice, Cambri mit Press. Cuito, Aurora and Cristina Montes (eds.), Rem Koolh (Archipockets), Kempen 2002, Neues Publishing
Damisch, Hubert, ‘The M anhattan Transfer’, in Luc
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– Rem Koolhaas. Architecture 1970-1990, New York 1991, Princeton Architectural Press, pp. 21-33. Deleuze, Gilles and Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus , Minneapolis 1987, University of Minnesota Press.
James, William, Pragmatism: A New Name for Som of Thinking, New York 1907, Longman Green a Jencks, Charles and George Baird (eds), Meaning in London 1969, Barrie & Rockliff the C resset P Johnson, Paul-Alan, The Theory of Architecture: Conce Themes & Practices , New York 1994, Van Nostran Jones, J. Christopher, Design Methods: Seeds of Human London 1970, Wiley-Interscience.
OMA
Evans, Robin, The Fabrication of Virtue: English Prison Architecture, 1750-1840, Cambridge Cambridgeshire, New York 1982, Cambridge University Press. Evans, Robin, Translations from Drawing to Building , Cambridge 1997, mit Press. Evans, Robin, ‘Architectural Projection’ in Eva Blau and Edward Kaufman (eds), Architecture and Its Image, Montreal 1989, 19-35.
King, Anthony D., Buildings and Society: Essays on the Development of the Built Environment , London Routledge & Kegan Paul. King, Anthony D., The Bungalow: the Production of a G Fisher, Thomas, In the Scheme of Things: Alternative Thinking on London 1984, Routledge & Kegan Paul. the Practice of Architecture, Minneapolis 2000, University of Koolhaas, Rem, Delirious New York: a Retroactive Ma Sign up to vote on this title Minnesota Press. Manhattan , London , Thames and Hudson. 1978 Foucault, Michel, Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison. Koolhaas, Rem, and others, Small, Medium, Large, E Useful Not useful You're Reading a Preview London 1979, Penguin Books. Rotterdam 1995, 010 Publishers. Kwinter, Sanford (ed.), Rem Koolhaas. Conversations w Unlock full access with a free trial. Galison, Peter and Emily Thompson (eds.), The Architecture of Rice University School of Architecture, Houston
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– Rem Koolhaas. Architecture 1970-1990, New York 1991, Princeton Architectural Press, pp. 21-33. Deleuze, Gilles and Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus , Minneapolis 1987, University of Minnesota Press. OMA
Evans, Robin, The Fabrication of Virtue: English Prison Architecture, 1750-1840, Cambridge Cambridgeshire, New York 1982, Cambridge University Press. Evans, Robin, Translations from Drawing to Building , Cambridge 1997, mit Press. Evans, Robin, ‘Architectural Projection’ in Eva Blau and Edward Kaufman (eds), Architecture and Its Image, Montreal 1989, 19-35.
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Methods of MVRDV
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James, William, Pragmatism: A New Name for Som of Thinking, New York 1907, Longman Green a Jencks, Charles and George Baird (eds), Meaning in London 1969, Barrie & Rockliff the C resset P Johnson, Paul-Alan, The Theory of Architecture: Conce Themes & Practices , New York 1994, Van Nostran Jones, J. Christopher, Design Methods: Seeds of Human London 1970, Wiley-Interscience.
King, Anthony D., Buildings and Society: Essays on the Development of the Built Environment , London Routledge & Kegan Paul. King, Anthony D., The Bungalow: the Production of a G Fisher, Thomas, In the Scheme of Things: Alternative Thinking on London 1984, Routledge & Kegan Paul. the Practice of Architecture, Minneapolis 2000, University of Koolhaas, Rem, Delirious New York: a Retroactive Ma Minnesota Press. Manhattan, London 1978, Thames and Hudson. Foucault, Michel, Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison. Koolhaas, Rem, and others, Small, Medium, Large, E You're Reading a Preview London 1979, Penguin Books. Rotterdam 1995, 010 Publishers. Kwinter, Sanford (ed.), Rem Koolhaas. Conversations w Unlock full access with a free trial. Rice University School of Architecture, Houston Galison, Peter and Emily Thompson (eds.), The Architecture of Science, Mass., London 1999, mit Press. Texas & New York 1996, Princeton Architectura Guattari, Felix, ‘Les machines architecturales de Shin Takamatsu,’ Download With Free Trial in Chimères 21, 1994, pp. 127–41. Latour, Bruno, ‘The Politics of Explanation: An alter in Woolgar, S. (ed.), Knowledge and Reflexivity: Ne Hays, K. Michael, Architecture Theory Since 1968, Cambridge 1998, in the Sociology of Knowledge 1988, 155-77. Latour, Bruno, Pandora’s Hope: an Essay on the Reality mit Press. Heath, Tom, Method in Architecture, Chichester 1984, Wiley. Studies , Cambridge 1999, Harvard University Pr Heurtin, Jean-Philippe, L’espace publique parlamentaire. Essai sur les Latour, Bruno ( 2005a), ‘En tapotant légèrement sur raisons du législateur. Paris 1999, Presses Universitaires de France. de Koolhaas avec un bâton d’aveugle’, Architectu Hill, Jonathan, Actions of Architecture: Architects and Creative Users , d’aujourd’hui, Nov-Dec, no. 361, pp.70-9. London 2003, Routledge. Latour, Bruno ( 2005b), Reassembling the Social: an In Houdart, Sophie, ‘Des multiples manières d’être reel – Les Actor-Network-Theory, Oxford, Oxford Universit représentations en perspective dans le projet d’architecture’, Latour, Bruno and Albena Yaneva, ‘Give me a gun an in Terrain 46, 2006, pp. 107-22. all buildings move: an ant ’s view of architecture’ Houdart, Sophie and Chihiro Minato, Kuma Kengo. Essai de R. (ed), Explorations in Architecture: Teaching, Desi monographie décalée, Paris 2009, Editions donner lieu. Basel 2008, Birkhäuser. Hubbard, Bill, A Theory for Practice: Architecture in Three Discourses , Lawson, Bryan, Design in Mind , Oxford 1994, Butter Cambridge 1995, mit Press. Architecture.
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Leach, Neil (ed.), Rethinking Architecture, London and New York 1997, Routledge. Levene, Richard, Fernando Marquez Cecilia, Rem Koolhaas, oma * amo , Rem Koolhaas 1996 -2006 , I: delirious and more = delirio y mas , Madrid 2006, El Croquis. Lucan, Jacques, OMA – Rem Koolhaas. Architecture 1970-1990, New York 1991 Markus, Thomas, Buildings and Power . London and New York 1993, Routledge. Mical, Thomas, Surrealism and Architecture, London 2005, Routledge. Mitchell, C. Thomas, New Thinking in Design: Conversations on Theory and Practice, New York 1996, Van Nostrand Reinhold. Moneo, Rafael, Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies in the Work of Eight Contemporary Architects , Cambridge, Mass. 2004, mit Press, 306-59. You're Muthesius, S., The English Terraced House, New Haven and London 1982, Yale University Press.
Schön, Donald A., The Reflective Practitioner: How Pr Think in Action, New York 1983, Basic Books. Schön, Donald A., The Design Studio: an Exploration o and Potentials , London 1985, riba Publications. Shoshkes, Ellen, The Design Process , New York 1989 Library of Design. Silvetti, Jorge, ‘Representation and Creativity in Arc The Pregnant Moment’, in O. Akin and E. G. Representation and Architecture, 1982, Silver Sprin Sloterdijk, Peter, Ecumes: Spheres III , Spherologie pluri Maren Sell Editeurs. Souriau, Etienne, ‘Du mode d’existence de l’œuvre à de la société française de philosophie, 25 February
Tafuri, Manfredo, Architecture and Utopia: Design and Sign up to vote, Mass., on this title1979, mit Press. Development London
et sociologie, Paris 1999 UsefulGabriel, Not useful Tarde, Monadologie Reading a Preview Les Empecheurs de parler end rond.
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Leach, Neil (ed.), Rethinking Architecture, London and New York 1997, Routledge. Levene, Richard, Fernando Marquez Cecilia, Rem Koolhaas, oma * amo , Rem Koolhaas 1996 -2006 , I: delirious and more = delirio y mas , Madrid 2006, El Croquis. Lucan, Jacques, OMA – Rem Koolhaas. Architecture 1970-1990, New York 1991 Markus, Thomas, Buildings and Power . London and New York 1993, Routledge. Mical, Thomas, Surrealism and Architecture, London 2005, Routledge. Mitchell, C. Thomas, New Thinking in Design: Conversations on Theory and Practice, New York 1996, Van Nostrand Reinhold. Moneo, Rafael, Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies in the Work of Eight Contemporary Architects , Cambridge, Mass. 2004, mit Press, 306-59. You're Muthesius, S., The English Terraced House, New Haven and London 1982, Yale University Press.
Methods of MVRDV
Schön, Donald A., The Reflective Practitioner: How Pr Think in Action, New York 1983, Basic Books. Schön, Donald A., The Design Studio: an Exploration o and Potentials , London 1985, riba Publications. Shoshkes, Ellen, The Design Process , New York 1989 Library of Design. Silvetti, Jorge, ‘Representation and Creativity in Arc The Pregnant Moment’, in O. Akin and E. G. Representation and Architecture, 1982, Silver Sprin Sloterdijk, Peter, Ecumes: Spheres III , Spherologie pluri Maren Sell Editeurs. Souriau, Etienne, ‘Du mode d’existence de l’œuvre à de la société française de philosophie, 25 February
Reading a
Tafuri, Manfredo, Architecture and Utopia: Design and Development , Mass., London 1979, mit Press. Tarde, Gabriel, Monadologie et sociologie, Paris 1999 Preview Les Empecheurs de parler end rond.
Unlock full access with a free trial. Venturi, Robert and Denise Scott Brown, Architectur
Ockman, Joan (ed.), Architecture, Criticism, Ideology, Princeton N.J. 1985, Princeton Architectural Press. Download Office for Metropolitan Architecture and Rem Koolhaas, Content , Cologne 2004, Taschen. Patteeuw, Veronique (ed.), What is OMA ? Considering Rem Koolhaas and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Rotterdam 2004, na i publishers. Pollack, Sydney, Esquisses de Frank Gehry, sp Architecture Productions llc 2006, Princeton Architectural Press. Porter, Tom, How Architects Visualize, New York 1979, Van Nostrand Reinhold. Porter, Tom & John Neale, Architectural Supermodels: Physical Design Simulation, Oxford 2000, Architectural Press.
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Systems , Cambridge 2004, Belknap Press of Harv Press. Trial Vidler, Anthony, The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in Unhomely, Cambridge, Mass. 1992, mit Press.
Yaneva, Albena, ‘Scaling up and Down: Extraction T tectural Design’, in Social Studies of Science (35 Yaneva, Albena, The Making of a Building: A Pragmat to Architecture, Oxford 2009, Peter Lang.
Robbins, Edward, Why Architects Draw, Cambridge, London 1994, mit Press. Rowe, Peter G., Design Thinking , Cambridge 1987, mit Press.
This publication has been made possible by the generous support of the Netherlands Architecture Fund, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. illustrations Albena Yaneva, Manchester design Piet Gerards Ontwerpers, Amsterdam
(Piet Gerards and Monique Hegeman) printing Lecturis, Eindhoven © 2009 Albena Yaneva and 010 Publishers, Rotterdam isbn 978 90 6450 714 4
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This publication has been made possible by the generous support of the Netherlands Architecture Fund, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. illustrations Albena Yaneva, Manchester design Piet Gerards Ontwerpers, Amsterdam
(Piet Gerards and Monique Hegeman) printing Lecturis, Eindhoven © 2009 Albena Yaneva and 010 Publishers, Rotterdam isbn 978 90 6450 714 4
www.010.nl
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