Ole Scheeren: A Beijing Essay

Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is an international practice operating within the traditional boundaries of architecture and urbanism. AMO, a research and design studio, applies architectural thinking to domains beyond. OMA is led by eight partners – Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and Managing Partner-Architect David Gianotten – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia. OMA-designed buildings currently under construction are the renovation of Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) in Berlin, The Factory in Manchester, Hangzhou Prism, the CMG Times Center in Shenzhen and the Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux.

OMA’s completed projects include Taipei Performing Arts Centre (2022), Audrey Irmas Pavilion in Los Angeles (2020), Norra Tornen in Stockholm (2020), Axel Springer Campus in Berlin (2020), MEETT Toulouse Exhibition and Convention Centre (2020), Galleria in Gwanggyo (2020), WA Museum Boola Bardip (2020), nhow RAI Hotel in Amsterdam (2020), a new building for Brighton College (2020), and Potato Head Studios in Bali (2020). Earlier buildings include Fondazione Prada in Milan (2018), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015), De Rotterdam (2013), CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012), Casa da Música in Porto (2005), and the Seattle Central Library (2004).

AMO often works in parallel with OMA's clients to fertilize architecture with intelligence from this array of disciplines. This is the case with Prada: AMO's research into identity, in-store technology, and new possibilities of content-production in fashion helped generate OMA's architectural designs for new Prada epicenter stores in New York and Los Angeles. In 2004, AMO was commissioned by the European Union to study its visual communication, and designed a colored "barcode" flag, combining the flags of all member states, which was used during the Austrian presidency of the EU. AMO has worked with Universal Studios, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, Heineken, Ikea, Condé Nast, Harvard University and the Hermitage. It has produced Countryside: The Future, a research exhibited at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, including Public Works (2012), Cronocaos (2010), and The Gulf (2006); and for Fondazione Prada, including When Attitudes Become Form (2012) and Serial and Portable Classics (2015). AMO, with Harvard University, was responsible for the research and curation of the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale and its publication Elements. Other notable projects are Roadmap 2050, a plan for a Europe-wide renewable energy grid; Project Japan, a 720-page book on the Metabolism architecture movement (Taschen, 2010); and the educational program of Strelka Institute in Moscow.

Ole Scheeren is a German architect and principal of Buro Ole Scheeren with offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Berlin, and Bangkok. He is chief designer and leading the company’s creative vision and strategic development.

Ole Scheeren’s current work includes the Guardian Art Center, a new exhibition space and headquarters for China’s oldest art auction house currently under construction near the Forbidden City in Beijing; 1500 West Georgia, a residential high-rise in downtown Vancouver; DUO, a large-scale mixed-use urban development under construction in Singapore; MahaNakhon, at 314 meters Bangkok’s tallest tower housing the Ritz-Carlton Residences; Angkasa Raya, a 268 meter tall landmark building in the center of Kuala Lumpur; and a large-scale mixed-use urban development in Shenzhen, China.

Prior to launching Buro Ole Scheeren in 2010, Ole was Director and Partner along with Rem Koolhaas at OMA and responsible for the office’s work across Asia. As partner-in-charge of one of the largest buildings in the world, he successfully led the design and realization of the CCTV and TVCC Towers in Beijing. Other projects include The Interlace, a residential complex in Singapore (completed) and the Taipei Performing Arts Center in Taiwan (under construction). He also directed OMA’s work for Prada and completed the Prada Epicenters in New York and Los Angeles.

Through Studio Ole Scheeren, he is exploring his more personal interest in non-architectural projects and interventions, such as Archipelago Cinema, a floating auditorium in the Andaman Sea for the “Film on the Rocks” Festival in Yao Noi, Thailand, and subsequently installed at the 13th Architecture Biennale in Venice. He also developed Mirage City Cinema, a cinema-architecture space commissioned by the Sharjah Art Foundation as part of the Sharjah Biennial 11 Film Programme.

Ole Scheeren has contributed to various arts and culture projects and exhibitions throughout his career, including triennials in Beijing and Milan, China Design Now in London, the exhibition Cities on the Move at London’s Hayward Gallery and in the city of Bangkok, Media City Seoul and the Rotterdam Film Festival. For the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) he designed two exhibitions in New York and Beijing featuring the CCTV project.

He regularly lectures at various international institutions and conferences, serves on juries for awards and competitions, and has been awarded numerous prizes, including the WAF 2015 World Building of the Year for The Interlace, the CTBUH 2013 Best Tall Building award for CCTV and the 2014 inaugural Urban Habitat Award for The Interlace.

Educated at the universities of Karlsruhe and Lausanne, Ole Scheeren graduated from the Architectural Association in London and was awarded the RIBA Silver Medal.