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Rem Koolhaas Professor in Practice Department of Architecture |
Projects 2005
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Prada London, UK, London How can Prada Brompton distinguish itself from Epicenters and Green Stores?
Prada Stores They were site specific efforts to provide an entirely new conception of the Prada brand, which not only redefined the way the products were displayed, but also brought shoppers in contact with cultural and media content. The Prada Brompton store, through multiple branding and cultural content, can further extent the repertoire of the Prada shopping experience.
Prada Group Competition Stragety
At a select shop like Dover Street Market, the concept of multi branding is also applied, but with very different results. Brands are segregated by designer, but distinctions are not made between one and another or between clothing genders. Prada Brompton, could offer shoppers the brand and style diversity of the Dover Street Market and (through it’s single floor layout) the convenience of the single, ‘curated’ floors of the department stores.
Strips Baltic Pearl, Russia, St. Petersburg
The proposal for the site consists of two intersecting bands. At the end of the bands and at their intersection are special programmatic elements: the so-called attractors. The remaining part of the site: three quarters, consist of various residential typologies, grouped together in clusters. All different sections of the site contain a mix of different land-uses; the density in the bands is higher, that in the quarters lower. The elements are superimposed on a pre-fixed general layout of main roads and water infrastructure: the so-called mayor’s order 586. The proposed mix of uses is an interpretation of a general indication of the desired mix of land uses indicated in this order. So far the scheme is clear and logical. The scheme conforms to the general principles laid out by the St Petersburg authorities and obediently follows its directives. In its further elaboration however, the scheme removes itself from those principles. The next layers that are introduced: the shaping of the urban substance, the layout of additional, secondary or tertiary access roads and the mix of proposed typologies are a completely new and free interpretation that constitute an entirely autonomous logic and account for the scheme’s unexpected formal appearance.
The overall formal organisation of the scheme plays on the blurring of a clear formal structure. The underlying diagrammatic principle of bands and quarters is corrupted as though it has been deformed by the force of a magnetic field. In the absence of a real density (the floor area ratio of the site is less than 1, similar to that of the surrounding housing quarters built during Soviet times) a form of differentiation is introduced that creates local pockets of higher density and conversely allows significant parts of the site to become public green area. The differentiation in density enhances the plausibility of the attractors and creates a kind of natural gravitation towards them. The various segments of the scheme contain a mix of typologies, although the emphasis and proportional presence of those typologies in each segment is different, each segment aims to accommodate the largest possible variety that its character permits in order to attract the largest variety of people.
The housing quarters are composed of a series of clusters that enclose a series of semi private collective spaces. The clustering of the residential uses, besides inducing a more sustainable, ecological approach also reintroduces an enhanced sense of community. Collective, socially inspired types paradoxically only have been most successful when they have been built for the rich. Their reintroduction here could be a good opportunity to break with the trend that more affluence invariably leads to lower density and more individual forms of housing typologies. Continuous green bands surround the residential clusters and form a continuous ecological structure. The green bands are programmed with sports and leisure playing fields and playgrounds. They also provide an attractive pedestrian network that links the quarters to the bands.
In the central north-south bands a continuous internal, climatized feature is introduced, forming an indoor winding promenade that links the individual buildings and also insulates buildings from the natural loss of heat. At the point where the promenade encounters the central attractor it connects with the large climatised public spaces of its large public provisions, such as: a library, a cinema, a museum, a theater and a school. The architectural elaboration of the different attractors in the central bands, aims to turn these attractors into landmarks as requested by the brief. However, it remains to be seen if even the wildest architectural elaboration and the most adventurous programming of the attractors would suffice to provide the development the unique identity that is aimed for. Rather than banking on the impacts of the individual buildings, our bet is on the impact of the overall composition; the bird’s eye view that declares the whole development into a landmark, producing identity unimaginable at the scale of a building—an urban quarter as the blueprint for the ideal city. Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne — Learning Center, Lausanne, Switzerland
The Learning Center in the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne is configured in a mountain-like organization with stepped terraces directed not only to the campus but also towards the Lac Leman. There is a strong interaction between every component of the program and the surrounding context. The campus itself forms the EPFLC. Its panoptical dimension is materialized as result of encounters from the built and natural surroundings. A new connection is generated between the main plaza of the campus, at the intersection of the two existing main axes, and the new development in the green south sector. The proposed building folds the southern Axe dánimation to reach the central node of the school. This folding of the program operates as a link and a gate for the campus, bridging the main plaza. The bridge shelters the nodal outdoor amphitheater.
The existing 7.20 module of the campus is maintained to offer organizational flexibility. The generic elements of the program are accommodated within this module. A system of 9m wide slabs allocating these modules operates in two ways: stacking within the zone of the campus node and stepping towards the landscape south axis. The intersection between the two systems generates distinctive volumes to accommodate the larger pieces of the program: foyer, multipurpose area and restaurant. Programmatic continuity encourages the interaction between students to develop more active educational methods. There is no distinction between landscape and Learning Center at the EPFL. The new south axis folds over the main avenue, extending a "green" band over the main access avenue of the campus. The axis band becomes programmatic. The residual areas of the south sector are preserved as an expansive landscape zone with potential for temporary programs.
The campus axis system is extended towards the site to generate potential additions to its network. Potential programs can be plugged into its infrastructure. The EPFLC organizes the south sector with a parallel corridor to that one of the previous architecture, working simultaneously. The south façade of the link and its landscape extension is covered with a carpet of solar cells. The solar cells are utilized to provide both shading and electrical power for the building. The byproduct heat generated by the photovoltaic façade will be captured by the building in winter and evacuated in summer. In combination with energy efficient fixtures and natural ventilation, it is anticipated that this system will provide the EPFLC’s energy needs. Despite of its iconic image, the building operates as a straightforward bridge. The structural solution is very simple, economical and efficient and exploits the fundamental requirements of a modern learning facility. Jeddah International Airport, Saudi Arabia, Jeddah, 2005 New international airport with Hadj facilities and royal family terminal
For 33 days per year the new Jeddah Airport will host the influx of two million Muslims for the holy Hajj period in Mecca. No other airport in the world can claim such overwhelming specificity of its use. These programmatic requirements form the base for a new approach to both the organization of the airport and its architecture.
Predictability over indeterminacy With the Hajj as one of the main defining elements, the new Jeddah International Airport presents a unique situation: its expansion is a given in advance, occurring at a fixed moment for a fixed length of time. This relative predictability allows the design of the Jeddah airport to acquire a level of specificity unheard of in a ‘regular’ airport: allowing the rehabilitation of the particular over the general, of centrality over linearity, and of character over blandness.
Arrival over departure This discrepancy is also expressed in the design of the airport, with departures generally located in a ‘grandiose space’ on top (mostly under a billowing roof) and arrivals located in a flat utilitarian luggage-collect-space below, making the first acquaintance with a new destination often one of disappointment. The unique condition and purpose of the new Jeddah International Airport presents us with a compelling reason to consider arriving with the same consideration as leaving. (Mecca you don’t leave, to Mecca you go!) The surface required by the Hajj equals that of the airport itself. Accommodating the Hajj theoretically means building the same volume twice, with one volume being empty for most of the year. In the current situation this is solved by having the Hajj section as a temporary structure in the form of a big tent.
Design Proposal
The design realizes departures and arrivals on the same level allowing both to benefit from the same spatial conditions. The realization of departure and arrival on a single level creates a large surface that equals that of the Hajj, allowing the Hajj to be accommodated on the same footprint as the airport itself. No longer realized as a separate section, the Hajj becomes the almost casual by-product of a particular airport design. The Hajj becomes the invisible twin that — at fixed moments — allows the airport to expand its size. Balandra Bay, Baja, Mexico, 2005
Balandra Bay is one of Baja California’s Mexico landmarks.
The site is extremely attractive due to its relationship with Espiritu Santo Island and its geomorphologic conditions and natural resources. A particular highlight is the Estero Balandra, one of the state’s most beautiful estuaries. OMA proposed a seamless private and exclusive densification over the more accessible mountains while preserving the majority of the site. A continuous public frame over the landscape links the individual mountains and major programs. Each one of these mountains –“islands”- acquires a different identity resulting from the combination of landscape conditions and program deployment. Balandra Bay project is an invention in contrast to typical resort densification. While blending with the natural context rather than competing, its subtle yet iconic presence would identify it internationally as an exclusive and first class resort. Venice 2005 — Expansion-Neglect, Italy, Venice, 2005 AMO's Contribution to the Venice Architecture Biennale 2005
Does every museum in the world need to be modernized? Or can a certain amount of inaction, a certain resistance to change actually be instrumental in maintaining a degree of the authenticity so frequently erased by modernization? Can the architect, a person usually hired to change the conditions he finds, perform more like an archaeologist, scrupulously examining the current conditions, and proposing new forms of organization that allow each element to enjoy renewed value?
The Hermitage project cannot be understood in strictly architectural terms; in fact, it cannot be understood along any of the classical definitions of a project. The “Hermitage Project” is not a project: it is a concentration of different issues that can only be resolved successfully by taking a more comprehensive approach – curatorial or intellectual. Rather than a confident imposition of the new, the task at hand is to find those changes that will allow the Hermitage, without being too manifest, to function better. During the last three years, AMO/OMA has worked as a consultant for the Guggenheim - Hermitage Foundation on scenarios for the museum’s future. The central issue at stake is how to modernize the Hermitage Museum while accepting one of Russia’s great legacies on its own terms. The Hermitage is examined as a whole: its functioning as a museum, its future position, its integral participation in the city of St. Petersburg … SNU Museum of Art, South Korea, Seoul, 2005 Seoul University building for education, exhibition and research
The Seoul National University Museum is situated near the university's main entrance. The building itself, a rectangular box so to speak, hovers over a concrete core. The box is sliced at an angle creating a sloping floor for the auditoriums. The ground plane beneath is kept completely free allowing for maximum interaction between the students and the building. The design for the Seoul National University Museum is driven by the relationship of the campus to the community and serve as a link between them. This linkage is the defining operation behind the project's morphology. The operation is a slice through the maximum building envelope and establishes a pedestrian connection between the community and the campus. The hovering mass generated by this slice is modulated by the circulation path and site topography. This mass is a cantilevered structural steel shell bearing on concrete core.
Circulation through the building is a continuation of the defining slice, internally the path bifurcate and spirals inward. As one enters the building the circulation affords connections to the different programs. There are four basic program areas: Exhibition, Educational, Library and Operations. The educational spaces, the lecture hall and auditorium, benefit from the slope formed by the slice and internally accommodate ramped seating. The library inhabits the center and structural core of the building. Peripheral and central circulation paths create two spiraling loops, which allow program contiguity in the building. The exhibition space being the primary space in envelope is located at the top.
The exhibition level is designed for expansion by allowing its invasion of the educational spaces. This invasion and resultant multi use of the educational spaces for exhibition purposes are articulated by a ramped circulation path and in materiality. The building is further defined by a selection of finishes and materials, which articulate its compositional elements and functional requirements. The monolithic volume is strategically punctuated towards specific site views, consequently exposing moments of its structural framework. Netherlands Embassy Berlin, Germany, Berlin, 2005 Royal Netherlands Embassy to the Federal Republic of Germany
In the wake of the reunification the German government decided to relocate the capital to Berlin ‘Mitte’ (Center). The Netherlands, having sold their former embassy site after the War, was free to choose anew and preferred Roland Ufer in Mitte, the oldest Berlin settlement, next to the (new) government district of their main trade partner. The client demanded a solitary building, integrating requirements of conventional civil service security with Dutch openness. Traditional (former West Berlin) city planning guidelines demanded the new building to complete the city block in 19th century fashion, the (former East Berlin) city planning officials had an open mind towards our proposal for a freestanding cube on a - block completing - podium.
When we were given charge of the design of the entire site we were able to further explore a combination of obedience (fulfilling the block’s perimeter) and disobedience (building a solitary cube). A continuous trajectory reaching all eight stories of the embassy shapes the building’s internal communication. The workspaces are the ‘leftover areas’ after the trajectory was ‘carved’ out of the cube and are situated along the facade. Reception spaces are activated inside the cube. Other semi-public spaces are located closer to the facade and at one point cantilever out over the drop-off area. From the entry, the trajectory leads on via the library, meeting rooms, fitness area and restaurant to the roof terrace. The trajectory exploits the relationship with the context, river Spree, Television Tower (‘Fernsehturm’), park and wall of embassy residences; part of it is a ‘diagonal void’ through the building that allows one to see the TV ower from the park.
The (slightly over pressurized) trajectory works as a main airduct from which fresh air percolates to the offices to be drawn off via the double (plenum) facade. This ventilation concept is part of a strategy to integrate more functions into one element. This integration strategy is also used with the structural concept. The internal walls adjacent to the trajectory are load bearing beams that cross over each other enough to bring loads down. Hereby big open spaces are created on the lower floors of the building. Load baring – glass – mullions, allowed to fall out in case of a fire while still leaving the superstructure in tact, support the floor slabs where the trajectory meets the facade. The access road between ‘cube’ and ‘residential wall’ acts as courtyard open to one side to allow a panoramic view over the Spree and the park. In order to emphasize the difference with the surrounding buildings which are clad with stone, the sockle and the wall with the residences are clad with aluminium. Europe Exhibition — Vienna, Austria, Vienna, 2005
To mark the occasion of the Netherlands' 2004 Presidency of the European Union, an exhibition and symposium was held in Brussels under the joint sponsorship of the Dutch Presidency and the European Commission. The title plays upon the double meaning of the word "image" — implying both representation and perception. Where the exhibition examines the ways in which Europe is represented — through words and symbols, the symposium addresses the ways that Europe is being perceived — by those inside and outside.
In 3000 years Europe has given us fascism and democracy. Not surprisingly, over the past fifty years it has been trying to reinvent itself. Instead of accepting its complex history as an alibi to excuse more turmoil and tragedy, it decided to reverse history. After World War II, visionary politicians created a new structure with new codes of behavior for the entire continent in a series of highly improvised steps and arrangements. Because the operation was so radical, it could only take place by stealth; for the initial part of the EU’s existence, its ulterior motives could never be openly stated. Because of the complexity of the operation, the treatises and blueprints that defined the new Europe were hard to communicate.
For the average European, the EU now is a parallel universe that coexists – inexplicably and unexplained – with the real world as we know it. Too often, this double life has been perceived as negative – as if the "blue" territory of Europe would take away our national identities; in fact the creation of a new Europe gives each of us new space to imagine ourselves. At 50, the EU has accomplished Schengen, the euro, prosperity, and lasting peace. This exhibition celebrates an end to its inhibited iconography, its coming out. From now on the EU will be bold, explicit, popular… Casa de Musica, Portugal, Porto, 2005
Defined both visually and spatially by its faceted exterior, the Casa da Musica invigorates the traditional concert hall with its daring interior forms and innovative use of materials. Wave-like corrugated glass is used in both the 1300 seat grand auditorium and its smaller 350 seat counterpart. Material transparency allows for each space to reveal its contents to the city; making visible an array of performances and cultural events. After Porto was selected one of the two cultural capitals of Europe in 2001, the Minister of Culture and the city of Porto founded Porto 2001, an organisation which was to initiate and prepare different urban and cultural interventions for the city of Porto. In this context five international architectural practices, amongst which was OMA, were invited to participate in a restricted competition for a new concert hall to be positioned in the historical centre of Porto, the Rotunda da Boavista. Urbanism
Since this part of Porto was still a city 'intact', OMA chose not to articulate the new concert hall as a segment of a small scale circular wall around the Rotunda da Boavista but to create a solitary building standing on the new, more intimate square connected to the historical park of the Rotunda da Boavista and enclosed by three urban blocks. With this concept, issues of symbolism, visibility and access were resolved in one gesture. Through both continuity and contrast, the park on the Rotunda da Boavista, after our intervention, is no longer a mere hinge between the old and the new Porto, but it becomes a positive encounter of two different models of the city. Acoustics
This left us with the question: where to innovate in a case of a traditional typology like the concert hall? Architectural concept OMA addressed the relationship between the Concert Hall and the public inside as well as outside the building by considering the building as a solid mass from which were eliminated the two shoe-box-shaped concert halls and all other public program creating a hollowed out block. The building reveals its contents to the city without being didactic; at the same time the city is exposed to the public inside in a way that has never happened before.
The 'remaining spaces' between the exposed public functions consist of secondary serving spaces such as foyers, a restaurant, terraces, technical spaces and vertical transport. A continuous public route connects all public functions and 'remaining spaces' located around the Grand Auditorium by means of stairs, platforms and escalators: the building becomes an architectural adventure. The loop creates the possibility to use the building for festivals with simultaneous performances; the House of Music. The building provides a large amount of rehearsal rooms, soloist rooms and dressing rooms to house the Porto Philharmonic Orchestra and to provide in addition facilities to external and guest performers.
During the Design Phase OMA researched new materials and new applications of existing and Portuguese materials exclusively for Casa da Musica such as; the concrete mix for the external facades, the corrugated glass for the windows of the Auditoria, the used tiles for different rooms and the chairs, canopy and wall finish in the Grand Auditorium. Structure |
