Contents
Rem Koolhaas
Designing the Seattle Central Library and challenging assumptions about how cities work.
Delirious New York · Seattle Central Library
- Born
- 17 November 1944
- Birthplace
- Rotterdam, Netherlands
More people
Rem Koolhaas
Dutch architect and writer, co-founder of OMA. His work combines large public buildings with provocative studies of urban life, scale and changing social needs.
Early life
Early years abroad
Spent part of his childhood in Indonesia before returning to the Netherlands.
Journalism before architecture
Worked as a journalist and screenwriter before studying at the Architectural Association in London.
Career
- 1968–1970s
Architectural studies
Studied in London and continued research in the United States.
- 1975
Founding OMA
Co-founded the Office for Metropolitan Architecture with collaborators.
- 1990s onward
International practice
Expanded into major cultural and civic projects while continuing writing and teaching.
Buildings & writing
Delirious New York
A book interpreting Manhattan’s density and culture as an architectural experiment.
Seattle Central Library
An OMA project with LMN that reorganizes a library through interconnected public spaces.
CCTV Headquarters
An OMA building in Beijing that joins towers into a continuous structural loop.
Beyond work
Teaching and research
Taught at Harvard and developed research on cities and the built environment.
Beyond buildings
AMO, OMA’s research counterpart, works on subjects ranging from media to exhibitions.
Sources & photo credit
Biography and references ↗Institutional biography and career ↗Featured work and significance ↗Photo: Roberto Santorini. CC BY-SA 2.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
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