As part of Rem Koolhaas' sixth interview with Charlie Rose, of which four snippets have been made available on youtube, the Rotterdam-based architect and OMA co-founder explains, among other things, why he switched from journalism and scriptwriting to architecture.

The Rotterdam-based Architect talk about why the Dutch port-city Rotterdam is his practice's base. In the discussion, Koolhaas also explains why he feels that smart technology has a "sinister dimension," and how he has a tendency to "resist cultivating a singular aesthetic"

 Rem Koolhaas: The reason I became an architect (Jan. 14, 2016) | Charlie Rose   

Rem Koolhaas, the architect behind the CCTV building in China and Casa da Música in Portugal, explains how a trip to Moscow inspired him to switch from being a scriptwriter to an architect.

Rem Koolhaas on resisting aesthetic (Jan. 14, 2016) | Charlie Rose

In this clip, Architect Rem Koolhaas explains the design philosophy that has allowed him to resist cultivating a singular aesthetic, as Frank Gehry or Zaha Hadid.

Rem Koolhaas on smart technology's "sinister dimension" (Jan. 14, 2016) | Charlie Rose

Architect Rem Koolhaas, who curated the Venice Biennale in 2014, reflects on the potential benefits and downfalls of smart devices becoming pervasive within our built environment.

Rem Koolhaas: Why OMA is based in Rotterdam (Jan. 14, 2016) | Charlie Rose

Charlie Rose: Your early collaborator and our old friend Peter Eisenman said of you recently, "I love Rem.” I think it's very important to have lived in the time of Rem, like to have lived in the time of Corbusier." How do you -- I mean, you're a legend in --
Rem Koolhaas: Basically I am Dutch, and that means that I am incapable of dealing with those questions.

More information

Rem Koolhaas was born in Rotterdam in 1944. He began his career as a journalist, working for the Haagse Post, and as a set-designer in the Netherlands and Hollywood. He beganHe frequented the Architectural Association School in London and studied with Oswald Mathias Ungers at Cornell University. In 1978, he wrote Delirious New York: a retroactive manifesto for Manhattan, which has become a classic of contemporary architectural theory. In 1975 – together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp – he founded OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture).

The most important works by Koolhaas and OMA, from its foundation until the mid-1990s, include the Netherlands Dance Theatre at The Hague, the Nexus Housing at Fukuoka in Japan, the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, the Grand Palais of Euralille and Lille, the Villa dall’Ava, the Très Grande Bibliothèque, the Jussieu library in Paris, the ZKM in Karlsruhe and the Seattle Public Library.

Together with Koolhaas’s reflections on contemporary society, these buildings appear in his second book, S,M,L,XL (1995), a volume of 1376 pages written as though it were a “novel about architecture”. Published in collaboration with the Canadian graphic designer, Bruce Mau, the book contains essays, manifestos, cartoons and travel diaries.

In 2005, with Mark Wigley and Ole Bouman, he was the founder to the prestigious Volume magazine, the result of a collaboration with Archis (Amsterdam), AMO and C-lab (Columbia University NY).

His built work includes the Qatar National Library and the Qatar Foundation Headquarters (2018), Fondation Galeries Lafayette in Paris (2018), Fondazione Prada in Milan (2015/2018), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015), the headquarters for China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing (2012), Casa da Musica in Porto (2005), Seattle Central Library (2004), and the Netherlands Embassy in Berlin (2003). Current projects include the Taipei Performing Arts Centre, a new building for Axel Springer in Berlin, and the Factory in Manchester.

Koolhaas directed the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale and is a professor at Harvard University, where he directs The Project on the City, a research programme on changes in urban conditions around the world. This programme has conducted research on the delta of the Pearl River in China (entitled Great Leap Forward) and on consumer society (The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping). Taschen Verlag has published the results. Now is preparing a major exhibition for the Guggenheim museum to open in 2019 entitled Countryside: Future of the World.

Among the awards he has won in recent years, we mention here the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize (2000), the Praemium Imperiale (2003), the Royal Gold Medal (2004) and the Mies Van Der Rohe prize (2005). In 2008, Time mentioned him among the 100 most influential people of the planet.

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Published on: March 5, 2016
Cite: "What was the reason that Rem Koolhaas Switched From Scriptwriting to Architecture?" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/what-was-reason-rem-koolhaas-switched-scriptwriting-architecture> ISSN 1139-6415
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