Rem Koolhaas

Dutch architect (1944-) · Netherlands · Architects

Rem Koolhaas is read about 395 times a day, in 49 languages.

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The architect who wrote a love letter to Manhattan's chaos, then spent decades designing buildings that argue with themselves. Koolhaas pulls crowds because he thinks out loud about cities in ways that make other architects nervous.

Architects Architect Architecture Literature Journalism Screenwriting 20th Century

A life in dates

2022Rolf Schock Prize in Visual ArtsAward2013Johannes Vermeer AwardAward2012RIBA Charles Jencks AwardAward2008“Find optimism in the inevitable.”In their words3 March 2008From the New York Times article on Koolhaas and Dubai appearing March 3rd, 2008. Available here:Read the whole statement

2005European Union Prize for Contemporary ArchitectureAward2004“Noting that architecture can no longer keep up with the world: "The areas of consensus shift unbelievably fast; the bubbles of certainty are constantly exploding.”In their wordsJune 2004interview in Iconey , Icon 013, (June 2004)Read the whole statement

Royal Gold MedalAwardWolfert van BorselenpenningAward2003Praemium ImperialeAward2002Oeuvre Awards BKVBAward2000“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?”In their wordsRem Koolhaas Interview with Jennifer Sigler in Index Magazine, (2000)Read the whole statement

Pritzker Architecture PrizeAward1998Prix de l'Équerre d'ArgentAward1995“Architecture is a dangerous mixture of power and impotence.”In their wordsFrom S,M,L,XL, New York: The Monacelli Press, 1995Read the whole statement

“Japan lives with drastic segregation between the sublime, the ugly, and the utterly without qualities.”In their wordsFrom "Learning Japanese", published in S,M,L,XL, New York: The Monacelli Press, 1995Read the whole statement

“We were making sand castles. Now we swim in the sea that swept them away”In their wordsWhat Ever Happened to Urbanism? The Monicelli Press, New York, 1995, pp. 959/971.Read the whole statement

1986Rotterdam-Maaskant PrizeAward1944Born17 November 1944

Also in Deutsch

Photos 12

Rem Koolhaas inspecting the Seattle Central Library model in 2005

Prada, Beverly Hills, California

CCTV Headquarters, Beijing, China

Proposal for a barcode flag for the European Union, 2002.

In their own words 10

Rem Koolhaas

10 statements, newest first

Find optimism in the inevitable.
Mar 3, 2008, From the New York Times article on Koolhaas and Dubai appearing March 3rd, 2008. Available here:, Own words
I live in a Victorian apartment building in London.
2006, SPIEGEL interview, 2006, Own words
Noting that architecture can no longer keep up with the world: "The areas of consensus shift unbelievably fast; the bubbles of certainty are constantly exploding.
Jun 2004, interview in Iconey , Icon 013, (June 2004), Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

Awards

Rolf Schock Prize in Visual Arts2022

Johannes Vermeer Award2013

RIBA Charles Jencks Award2012

European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture2005

Wolfert van Borselenpenning2004

Royal Gold Medal2004

Praemium Imperiale2003

Oeuvre Awards BKVB2002

Pritzker Architecture Prize2000

Prix de l'Équerre d'Argent1998

Rotterdam-Maaskant Prize1986

Knight of the Legion of Honour

Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres

Family

Parents

Rem Koolhaas

Partners

Spouse Madelon Vriesendorp

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About this person

Remment Lucas Koolhaas was born in the Netherlands on 17 November 1944. He wrote Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan, a book that reframed the city's density as intentional delirium rather than accident. His work gets filed under deconstructivism, though opinion splits on whether he's a generational thinker about urbanism or a self-important iconoclast. The Pritzker Prize came in 2000. Time named him one of the world's most influential people in 2008, and the American Philosophical Society elected him in 2014. He teaches at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, holding the title Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design.

Country

Netherlands

In common with Rem

Jan de BontAlso in 1, 2, 3, Rhapsody (1965)

Richard SerraAlso in Here Is Always Somewhere Else (2007)

Pipilotti RistAlso in Here Is Always Somewhere Else (2007)

Rijk de GooyerAlso in The White Slave (1969)Chris BurdenAlso in Here Is Always Somewhere Else (2007)

Harry KümelAlso in The White Slave (1969)

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