Remment Lucas "Rem" Koolhaas -born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice

of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Koolhaas studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Koolhaas is the founding partner of OMA, and of its research-oriented counterpart AMO based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. In 2005, he co-founded Volume Magazine together with Mark Wigley and Ole Bouman. In 2000, Rem Koolhaas won the Pritzker Prize.In 2008, Time put him in their top 100 of The World's Most Influential People. OMA - OMA is a leading international partnership practicing architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis. OMA's buildings and masterplans around the world insist on intelligent forms while inventing new possibilities for content and everyday use. His father was a novelist, critic, and screenwriter. His maternal grandfather, Dirk Roosenburg (18871962), was a modernist architect. In their Citation, the Pritzker Prize Jury in 2000 described Rem Koolhaas as a visionary and a philosopher. Rem Koolhaas is, in fact, so different that scholars have difficulty classifying him. Is Koolhaas's work: Deconstructivist? Modernist? Structuralist? Although he was born in Rotterdam, Rem Koolhaas spent four years of his youth in Indonesia, where his father served as cultural director. Following in the footsteps of his literary father, Koolhaas began his career as a writer. He was a

journalist for the Dutch Weekly in The Hague, and later tried his hand at writing movie scripts. Koolhaas's writings won him fame in the field of architecture before he completed a single building. After graduating from the Architecture Association School in London, he accepted a research fellowship in the United States. During his visit, he wrote Delirious New York, which he described as a "retroactive manifesto for Manhattan" and which critics hailed as a classic text on modern architecture and society. Koolhaas first came to public and critical attention with OMA (The Office for Metropolitan Architecture), the office he founded in 1975 together with architects Elia Zenghelis, Zoe Zenghelis and (Koolhaas's wife) Madelon Vriesendorp in London. They were later joined by one of Koolhaas's students, Zaha Hadid - who would soon go on to achieve success in her own right. An early work which would mark their difference from the then dominant postmodern classicism of the late 1970s, was their contribution to the Venice Biennale of 1980, curated by Italian architect Paolo Portoghesi, titled "Presence of the Past". Each architect had to design a stage-like "frontage" to a Potemkin-type internal street; the faades by Costantino Dardi (it), Frank Gehry and OMA were the only ones that did not employ Post-Modern architecture motifs or historical references.

Other early critically received (yet unbuilt) projects included the Parc de la Villette, Paris (1982) and the residence for the President of Ireland (1981), as well as the Kunsthal in Rotterdam (1992). These schemes would attempt to put into practice many of the findings Koolhaas made in his book Delirious New York (1978), which was written while he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York, directed by Peter Eisenman.

Delirious New York

Delirious New York (a book) set the pace for Koolhaas's career. Koolhaas celebrates the "chance-like" nature of city life: "The City is an addictive machine from which there is no escape" "Rem Koolhaas...defined the city as a collection of red hot spots.*12+(Anna Klingmann). As Koolhaas himself has acknowledged, this approach had already been evident in the Japanese Metabolist Movement in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Seattle Central Library Seattle, USA, designed by OMA A key aspect of architecture that Koolhaas interrogates is the "Program": with the rise of modernism in the 20th century the "Program" became the key theme of architectural design. The notion of the Program involves "an act to edit function and human activities" as the pretext of architectural design: epitomised in the maxim Form follows function, first popularised by architect Louis Sullivan at the beginning of the 20th century. The notion was first questioned in Delirious New York, in his analysis of high-rise architecture in Manhattan. An early design method derived from such thinking was "cross-programming", introducing unexpected functions in room programmes, such as running tracks in skyscrapers. More recently, Koolhaas (unsuccessfully) proposed the inclusion of hospital units for the homeless into the Seattle Public Library project (2003).

In September 2006, Rem Koolhaas was commissioned to develop 111 First Street in Jersey City across the Hudson River from Manhattan, working with real estate developer Louis Dubin.

In October 2008, Rem Koolhaas was invited for a European "group of the wise" under the chairmanship of former Spanish prime minister Felipe Gonzlez to help 'design' the future European Union. Other members include Nokia chairman Jorma Ollila, former European Commissioner Mario Monti and former president of Poland Lech Wasa. Mr. Koolhaas believes in the idea of social progress. The pace of global change leaves him unfazed and optimistic. His work eagerly reforges the broken link between technology and progress. He revels in the unexpected, rather than passively anticipating agony. Perhaps as a Dutchman, imprinted with his country's role as an international trading centre, he has fewer problems with global change than might someone of another nationality. The Dutch, a nation of traders, have not surprisingly spawned an architect whose work responds to the silent, nanosecond trans-national flows of money and ideas. Many followers consider Rem Koolhaas to be the coolest, hippest, and most cutting-edge architect on the planet. But, like all things cutting-edge, Koolhaas is difficult to classify. Since the late 1970s, the Dutch designer has earned acclaim as an author, a theorist, an urban planner, a cultural researcher and a professor at Harvard. He has amassed an array of projects ranging in size from small, The Bordeaux House (1998), to large, the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, China (begun 2004), to extra large, the Euralille complex, located in Lille, France (1994). Although his projects are viewed as visionary by most, they are also unusual and frequently constructed using inexpensive, everyday materials. Rem Koolhaas founded the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in 1975 together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp. He graduated from the Architectural Association in London and in 1978 published Delirious New York, a Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. In 1995, his book S, M, L, XL summarised the work of OMA and established connections between contemporary society and architecture. He heads the work of both OMA and AMO, the conceptual branch of OMA focused on social, economical and technological developments and exploring territories beyond architectural and urban concerns.

His Inspirations: His work emphatically embraces the contradictions of two disciplines (architecture and urban design) that have struggled to maintain their humanist ideals of material honesty, the human scale and carefully crafted meaning in a rapidly globalising world that espouses material economy, machine scale and random meaning. Instead, Koolhaas celebrates the chance-like nature of city life. Another key aspect of architecture Koolhaas interrogates is the Program. With the rise of modernism in the 20th century the Program became the key theme of architectural design. The notion of the Program involves an act to edit function and human activities as the pretext of architectural design: epitomised in the maxim form follows function. An early design method derived from such thinking was cross-programming, introducing unexpected functions in room programmes, such as running tracks in skyscrapers.

His Philosophy: Mr. Koolhaas believes in the idea of social progress. The pace of global change leaves him unfazed and optimistic. His work eagerly reforges the broken link between technology and progress. He revels in the unexpected, rather than passively anticipating agony. Perhaps as a Dutchman, imprinted with his country's role as an international trading centre, he has fewer problems with global change than might someone of another nationality. The Dutch, a nation of traders, have not surprisingly spawned an architect whose work responds to the silent, nanosecond trans-national flows of money and ideas.

Mr. Koolhaas also notes the Dutch pride in the national trait of economy and thrift. He actually likes the integration of the notion of cheapness to create sublime conditions and is philosophical about the client as chaos. "Chaos simply happens. You cannot aspire to chaos; you can only be an instrument of it."

Koolhaas habit of shaking up established conventions has made him one of the most influential architects of his generation.

Quotes to remember:

"The word 'architecture' embodies the lingering hopeor the vague memory of a hope that shape, form, coherence could be imposed on the violent surf of information that washes over us daily."

"There is no plateau of resting or stabilising," Koolhaas explained. "Once you are interested in how things evolve, you have a kind of never-ending perspective, because it means you are interested in articulating the evolution, and therefore the potential change, the potential redefinition."

"Architects, for the first time in several decades, are being solicited for their power to physically articulate new visions," says Mr. Koolhaas, in person charming, unassuming, hyper-articulate. "Once again one feels a belief in the propagandistic nature of architecture."

"People can inhabit anything. And they can be miserable in anything and ecstatic in anything. More and more I think that architecture has nothing to do with it. Of course, that's both liberating and alarming. But the generic city, the general urban condition, is happening everywhere, and just the fact that it occurs in such enormous quantities must mean that it's habitable. Architecture can't do anything that the culture doesn't. We all complain that we are confronted by urban environments that are completely similar. We say we want to create beauty, identity, quality, and singularity. And yet, maybe in truth these cities that we have

are desired. Maybe their very characterlessness provides the best context for living."

"It's very simple and it has nothing to do with identifiable goals. It is to keep thinking about what architecture can be, in whatever form. That is an answer, isn't it? I think that S, M, L, XL has one beautiful ambiguity: it used the past to build a future and is very adamant about giving notice that this is not the end. That's how it felt to me, anyway. That is in itself evidence of a kind of discomfort with achievement measured in terms of identifiable entities, and an announcement that continuity of thinking in whatever form, around whatever subject, is the real ambition." It is not easy to define Koolhaas. Although his buildings can be found all over the world, its hard to recognise a typical Koolhaas building by visual appearance alone. To define Koolhaas you have to move to his realm, leave the world of bricks and steel, and enter the world of images, models and processes, a world of ideas. Not what is, but what could be.

His buildings and his books do, however, have something that makes them recognisable as a product from OMA. A product that is very much influenced by the process of creation, a bottom up, labour-intensive, research-lead way of questioning everything. His products are assemblies, where Koolhaas refuses to give any easy answers, and instead reveals a selection of evidence and demands from spectators to form their own interpretations. Koolhaass greatest achievement is therefore not a building or book, but a system that is capable of harvesting, questioning and producing ideas. What Koolhaas has built is a very large version of himself, a system that, through a method of researching and building, is capable of reliably creating beautiful and intelligent ideas on how the world could be. In this article I want to discuss the system that Koolhaas has built to get in that position and how he manages to remain at the forefront.

1. Observation The easiest way to uncover new ideas is to be in areas where life is being transformed fast. Koolhaas and his team have been working on a structure that is capable of searching the world for opportunities where change is happening faster than anywhere else, where certain breakthroughs can be made. Some places like the historical centres of European cities have hardly changed through the centuries, whilst others like Beijing, Dubai or Laos seem to redevelop themselves within years. As he states: We define an agenda, and then we look at the current moment and see where and in what way we could make certain breakthroughs and that is completely independent of making a constant sequence of architectural projects. Another way in which Koolhaas differs from his competitors is in how his studio is run. Koolhaas doesnt come up with the masterplan that is then refined by his architects. On the contrary, his practice defines itself by an enormous freedom, in materials, in methods and in working hours. One might say that at OMA its avoided at all cost that answers are given based on no other ground than authority. What Koolhaas therefore provides are questions and not answers.

As Koolhaas puts it: What the OMA process focuses on is not the creator but the critic. In our way of working, the important person is the one who is shown various options and then makes a critical decision. The result is better architecture. This practice of avoiding ready-made answers runs deep at OMA, it can be found in the way they source their materials. Another aspect of this freedom is the way employees are allowed to manage their time, so they can be productive without being constrained by fixed working hours.

Models play a crucial role at the OMA design process; produced in large quantities, they function as a container for ideas and constrains. Because of their shape they create an immediate impact, there is no need to go through long documents, a model is an entity to makes experiments easy. Dozens or even hundreds of ideas are turned into presentations, diagrams and models which through a process of constant critique, slowly turn into a final plan.

Koolhaas's work searches for a link between technology and humanity. Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT; literal translation, Netherlands Dance Theatre) is a Dutch contemporary dance company. NDT is headquartered at the Lucent Danstheater in The Hague. In addition to the Lucent Danstheater, NDT performs at other venues in the Netherlands, including Amsterdam's Het Muziektheater and Nijmegen's Stadsschouwburg. Founders. NDT was founded in 1959 by Benjamin Harkarvy, Aart Verstegen and Carel Birnie together with a group of 18 members of the Dutch National Ballet (which was directed by Sonia Gaskell). Their intention was to break away from the more traditionally oriented Dutch National Ballet (Het Nederlands Ballet). NDT focused on to new ideas and experimentation with the exploration of new forms and techniques of dance. In 1961 the Nederlands Dans Theater got subsidy from the city of Den Hague and from the government. In the sixties the NDTs repertoire existed out of a combination of classical dance with a strong influence by American modern dance. The NDT got unprecedented recognition and success with guiding of different persons like Hans van Manen and Ji Kylin as artictic directors. In the first years of the seventies there was no clear policy because of various conflicts within the board of the NDT. That changed when in 1975 Jir Kylian entered

the board as artistic leader. The Nederlands Dans Theater has been stationed in the Lucent Danstheater at the Spui in Den Hague since 1987.
World class dance in an architectural masterpiece Bang smack in the middle of the city centre of the Hague one can find the Lucent Dance Theatre. Built in 1987 to the design of world famous Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, this theatre is the only one in Holland that was specifically built for dance performances. This modern, architectural highlight is not only amazing to look at, it compliments every element of the art of dance making each performance truly spectacular. Although the theatre was built specially for dance performances, the program is not limited to the art of dance. Classical music concerts, drama productions, operas and musicals can also be enjoyed at the Lucent Dance Theatre. This theatre is truly a must-see for the architecture, the performers and the acoustics. The Hague is rightfully proud to have such a majestic theatre in their midst.

The Netherlands Dance Theatre, completed in 1987, was originally

conceived in 1980 as an extension to a circus theatre in Scheveningen, a seaside resort in The Hague. In 1984, the design was adapted for a new site - the Spui Complex - in the centre of The Hague. This new context - an area undergoing substantial change - was dominated by two slabs, the slope of an abandoned project for an innercity motorway, the axis towards the houses of parliament, the site for the future town hall, and a 17th century church - a lonely testimony to the once historical centre. The Dance Theatre had to share the Spui Complex with a concert hall (van Mourik, architect) and a hotel designed by Carel Weeber (also the planner of the complex). What would have been a flamboyant exterior reflecting the holiday vernacular of Scheveningen became, in the city centre, a humble building (with

the exception of the billboard/mural), which almost disappears between its extroverted neighbours. Although there was minimal collaboration between OMA and the architects of the concert hall, the buildings' physical proximity generated a shared foyer - a 7metre wide alley between the two buildings - in which an exterior wall of the concert hall becomes part of the NDT interior. The foyer consists of three levels: the lowest slotted beneath the auditorium tiers, above it a half-moon balcony, the highest - a 'floating' skybar. The plan, which was partially determined by the grid of the parking garage below, divides the building into three parallel programmatic zones. The large zone contains the stage (35 x 18m2) and 1,001 seat auditorium; the middle accommodates rehearsal studios; and the smallest includes offices, dressing rooms, the dancers' common rooms. An restaurant and an espresso bar are contained in the gold cone, which also serves as a cafeteria for dancers and staff.

The theatre has a structure of steel beams and girders, using metal cladding with sheet rock covered with stucco, marble and gold foil. The roof has a selfsupporting structure of a double layer of trapezoid folded sheet steel.