Wednesday, October 21, 2009

OMA at Home in Rotterdam

The Kunsthal, the Cube of Cheese, the Triplet Towers, ever so slowly but steadily Rem Koolhaas has been putting his mark on his home-town. And now OMA, in partnership with ABT Engineers & Co and Werner Sobek is to build the multi-functional StadsKantoor or city-hall & center of Rotterdam.

According to Architectenweb the ANP announced that the People's choice had not been OMA's design but that of SeArch. But Contest Committee members apparently didn't like the prominent "green cones" (I think they resemble cocktail shakers) in that firm's design.

A soundless video on YouTube shows imagery related to the StadsKantoor (City Hall) design, and for a split second the viewer can also detect the three towers OMA is building in the harbor city of Rotterdam.

Does the structure of StadsKantoor remind me of Lego®?
Yes, it does, a Lego® Transformer. Look at those awesome legs that from a certain angle seem to support the whole floating body!

Promised to be the most sustainable building in the Netherlands the complex will catch rainwater, have elevated terraces and homes with gardens, and facades with sandwich panels and lightweight thermal insulators (nanogels).

Saturday, June 06, 2009

DOKU ARTS Shows Houselife


Image of the article by Tracy Metz, is from newspaper NRC, photographic image is from the docudrama Houselife.

Guadalupe Acerdo is the cleaning lady of the "Maison a Bordeaux", the "best design of 1998" according to Time magazine.
She's prominently featured in "Houselife", a film by Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine.
Acerdo holds her ground in the lift, or on the "movable floor" in the house designed by Rem Koolhaas.

Houselife may be viewed during DOKU.ARTS the Festival of Films on Art
June 11-14, 2009
At the Filmmuseum
Vondelpark 3, Amsterdam

It pays off to buy more than one ticket at the time!

Film tickets
Regular €7,80.
With reduction: €6,50.
Friends of the Filmmuseum €4,50

When buying four tickets at once, you pay only €22,50 (€5,60 per ticket). These tickets can be used by one or more persons.

Ticket reservations:
tel. +31(0)20-5891400
Please pick up reserved tickets at least 30 minutes before the start of the screening.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Rem Koolhaas Twitters

Birds do it, educated flees do it, zoologists and architects do it.

Rem Koolhaas collects philosophical architectural thoughts on twitter.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

PRADA - TRANSFORMER

Rem Koolhaas together with associates Kunle Adeyemi and Chris van Duijn, and design architect Alexander Reichert sign for the architectural project: the Prada - Transformer.

To read in a press release that the Prada pavilion, "the building", its four sides a combination of: hexagon, cross, rectangle and circle, will be moved in position for different events by a crane, boggles the mind. However, the concept becomes totally clear, acceptable and brilliant when you take in Koolhaas's online design presentation.

From the Prada Press Desk:
The website is the result of a collaboration between Prada, AMO (the mirror image think tank of OMA) and 2x4, a multidisciplinary design studio from NY focusing on art, architecture, and fashion, world wide.

The concept of the site is strongly linked to the architectural project. Equal to the built pavilion, which transforms to accommodate different events, the website regenerates its graphics and contents according to the changes in use of the actual structure along time. The main navigation system is a timeline which allows users to intuitively scroll back and forward revealing the calendar of the pavilion and the related content.

For further information:
Prada Press Office
+39.02.541921
ufficio.stampa@prada.com
PA - TRANSFORMERRAD

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Rem Koolhaas a Kind of Architect

The Nortwest Film Forum presents:

REM KOOLHAAS: A KIND OF ARCHITECT
(Markus Heidingsfelder, Min Tesch, Germany, 2008, Digibeta, 97 min)
Presented by Northwest Film Forum

When: March 6 through 13, 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Where: Northwest Film Forum, 1515 - 12th Avenue, Seattle
Cost: $9

For tickets and more information visit the Northwest Forum website.

Monday, February 09, 2009

Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Flames

The Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Beijing has gone down in fire. The hotel which was scheduled to open in the coming summer of 2009 is part of the state owned and operated Beijing TV studios —CCTV— designed by OMA. The main towers and horizontal bridging section of CCTV have been spared. The blaze is said to have been caused by nearby lit fireworks.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

OMA presents Theater Design Taipei, Taiwan

Amphitheater, arena, black box, in the round, proscenium; there are as many different theatre structures as there are styles of theatre art. The Office of Metropolitan Architecture, world wide known for multi functional auditoriums has presented yet a new approach with the proposed stage design for the Taipei Performing Arts Centre

The cube shaped building is to hold three performance spaces (1500, 800, and 800 seats) which may be used in combination, as well as individually. Such flexibility will allow (local) theater companies to create more experimental spectacles. And this innovative theatre complex may also become an interesting venue for foreign, space demanding companies such as Cirque du Soleil. 

The routing of the public through the Performing Arts Centre will allow patrons a look into the back stage areas. This "peek into the kitchen" is reminiscent of what the great visionary/director Ariane Mnouchkine has offered the public for many decades with her Theatre du Soleil.