Reinier de Graaf in conversation with Patrik Schumacher

The video gathers a casual and unpredictable encounter between Patrik Schumacher who acts as an interviewer of Reinier de Graaf in the presentation of his new book.

The event was held in The Building Centre de Londres, and in this video, Reinier de Graaf of OMA (partner at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture) is interviewed by Zaha Hadid Architects director Patrik Schumacher about his big new book, of 500 pages, title; Four Walls and a Roof: The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession.

Written as a series of essays, Four Walls and a Roof focuses on the architectural profession, giving an honest portrayal of the divides between ideology and practice, the particular challenges of age versus experience, the realities of working internationally and the effects of the economy.

Patrik interrogates Reinier on the why of his book, the deeper meaning and its relevance for the profession in general.

The initial interviewer was Paul Finch, who could not attend due to being trapped in China (it seems that due to a visa issue) and was replaced by Patrik Schumacher. The conversation crossed themes that range from the consideration of public space, the putting into crisis of certain myths about architecture -authority, individual inspiration, good things in architecture, the idea of control on a large scale, the myth of progress .. .-, or the questioning that the generation of ideas is proof of an ideology.

A complex and interesting grid of ideas, some very questionable and all quite suggestive, arising between two close strangers.

Reinier de Graaf and Patrik Schumacher, in The Building Centre.

Reinier de Graaf in The Building Centre.

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More information

Label

Dates

Text

September 29, 2017.

Label

Venue

Text

The Building Centre, 26 Store St, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7BT, UK.

Reinier de Graaf

Reinier de Graaf (1964, Schiedam) is a Dutch architect and writer. Reinier de Graaf joined OMA in 1996. He is responsible for building and masterplanning projects in Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, including Holland Green in London (completed 2016), the new Timmerhuis in Rotterdam (completed 2015), G-Star Headquarters in Amsterdam (completed 2014), De Rotterdam (completed 2013), and the Norra Tornen residential towers in Stockholm. In 2002, he became director of AMO, the think tank of OMA, and produced The Image of Europe, an exhibition illustrating the history of the European Union.

He has overseen AMO’s increasing involvement in sustainability and energy planning, including Zeekracht: a strategic masterplan for the North Sea; the publication in 2010 of Roadmap 2050: A Practical Guide to a Prosperous, Low-Carbon Europe with the European Climate Foundation; and The Energy Report, a global plan for 100 percent renewable energy by 2050, with the WWF.

De Graaf has worked extensively in Moscow, overseeing OMA’s proposal to design the masterplan for the Skolkovo Centre for Innovation, the ‘Russian Silicon Valley,’ and leading a consortium which proposed a development concept for the Moscow Agglomeration: an urban plan for Greater Moscow. He recently curated two exhibitions, On Hold at the British School in Rome in 2011 and Public Works: Architecture by Civil Servants (Venice Biennale, 2012; Berlin, 2013). He is the author of Four Walls and a Roof, The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession.

Patrik Schumacher

Patrik Schumacher is a German architect and theorist born in Bonn, Germany, in 1961. He studied philosophy, mathematics, and architecture in Bonn, London, and Stuttgart, where he received his Diploma in Architecture in 1990. In 1988, he joined Zaha Hadid’s practice, beginning a decisive collaboration that contributed to the development of some of the firm’s most renowned projects. He became a partner at Zaha Hadid Architects in 2002 and, following Hadid’s death in 2016, assumed a central role in leading the practice. Among the major projects he has contributed to are the MAXXI in Rome, the Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul, and other large-scale international works.

In 1996, together with Brett Steele, he founded the Design Research Laboratory at the Architectural Association in London, where he has played an important teaching role. Schumacher is also one of the leading advocates of Parametricism, a term he popularized to describe an architecture based on digital systems, complex geometries, and variable relationships. His theoretical ideas were extensively developed in the two volumes of The Autopoiesis of Architecture, published in 2010 and 2012, which explore architecture as an autonomous system of communication and continue to influence contemporary architectural debate worldwide.

Published on: November 7, 2017

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metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA

"Reinier de Graaf in conversation with Patrik Schumacher" METALOCUS. Accessed

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