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Koolhaas, Content
OMA-AMO’s take on architecture and beyond in the world today
Content provides a rare view of the creative processes of one of architecture’s most famous firms, Rem Koolhaas’s OMA-AMO. Though it offers the fullness of a book, Content has the format and tone of a magazine. Like a magazine, it contains articles by outside contributors, including journalists, medical writers, and cultural critics—and, to help reduce the cost to customers, the book even contains paid advertising.
In its mood and subject matter, Content reflects recent shifts in geo-politics, particularly since 9-11. The book’s content follows Koolhaas's expanding interests, mixing architecture with politics, history, technology, and sociology. Its subjects are diverse: Martha Stewart is interviewed in one section; the history of African communist radio is charted in another. An anthropological study of subcultures in Germany’s Ruhr Valley is followed by proposals for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. Topics are arranged according to geography: the book begins in San Francisco and travels eastwards, finally ending in Tokyo. On the way, time is spent in Brazil, Nigeria, Portugal, Russia, and China, among other places. At a time when the profession is growing increasingly introverted, Content reconnects architecture with the outside world.
Content provides a rare view of the creative processes of one of architecture’s most famous firms, Rem Koolhaas’s OMA-AMO. Though it offers the fullness of a book, Content has the format and tone of a magazine. Like a magazine, it contains articles by outside contributors, including journalists, medical writers, and cultural critics—and, to help reduce the cost to customers, the book even contains paid advertising.
In its mood and subject matter, Content reflects recent shifts in geo-politics, particularly since 9-11. The book’s content follows Koolhaas's expanding interests, mixing architecture with politics, history, technology, and sociology. Its subjects are diverse: Martha Stewart is interviewed in one section; the history of African communist radio is charted in another. An anthropological study of subcultures in Germany’s Ruhr Valley is followed by proposals for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. Topics are arranged according to geography: the book begins in San Francisco and travels eastwards, finally ending in Tokyo. On the way, time is spent in Brazil, Nigeria, Portugal, Russia, and China, among other places. At a time when the profession is growing increasingly introverted, Content reconnects architecture with the outside world.
544 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2003
8 people are currently reading
283 people want to read
About the author
Rem Koolhaas
162 books306 followersRemment Lucas Koolhaas is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a representative of Deconstructivism and is the author of Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan.
He is seen by some as one of the significant architectural thinkers and urbanists of his generation, by others as a self-important iconoclast. In 2000, Rem Koolhaas won the Pritzker Prize. In 2008, Time put him in their top 100 of The World's Most Influential People. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2014.
He is seen by some as one of the significant architectural thinkers and urbanists of his generation, by others as a self-important iconoclast. In 2000, Rem Koolhaas won the Pritzker Prize. In 2008, Time put him in their top 100 of The World's Most Influential People. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2014.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 3, 2007
In the spirit of fairness and full disclosure, I should mention that I'm one of the contributors to this book. Content includes three of my essays: one on the Beijing CCTV building viewed as a surgical specimen, one on architecture and violence (with an accompanying set of case studies in a&v), and one on some potentially expurgation-worthy terms from contemporary architectural discourse. My rating here isn't based on my own contributions, but on the rest of the collection. Obviously, though, I can't pretend to objectivity here... this is the project that steered my career largely from medical to architectural writing (thanks again, Rem, Brendan, et al.!).
July 27, 2009
Okay, I read most of it. This book/magazine/pile of bound papers did give me a better idea and more respect for Rem Koolhaus and what he is up to in the world. I particularly respect his conclusion that the building of Architecture is too slow for our contemporary world (especially the elements he is interested in)so he established a group to work and analyze other fields with the eye of architecture.
That said- I hate the "is it a book, is it a magazine" question of the thing. Frankly what it becomes because of this is a crappy book. I also hate the pretension in it and frankly I haven't yet found an architect that I like to read. I can't stand most of it. maybe Robin Evans. maybe.
That said- I hate the "is it a book, is it a magazine" question of the thing. Frankly what it becomes because of this is a crappy book. I also hate the pretension in it and frankly I haven't yet found an architect that I like to read. I can't stand most of it. maybe Robin Evans. maybe.
October 19, 2019
Book with a magazine feel, like a collage of Rem's architectural thoughts.
February 9, 2024
Unnecessarily opaque and frustrating to read
December 25, 2007
This "bookazine" is jam-packed with the flashy (and questionable) graphics, bombastic pronouncements, occasionally erroneous historical notes (Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, not Atlanta), and leather-clad flesh shots that one would expect from any good sales brochure.
March 3, 2011
Pinjam dari Auriza. Bentuknya seperti majalah. Lebih banyak gambar dibanding tulisan. Tidak terlalu serius. Cocok untuk bacaan di waktu senggang.
February 23, 2007
koolhaas is god.
July 14, 2007
for a laugh!
no, seriously, don't take this seriously.
read it while you're taking a crap.
there are also nude women in the book, so you can also take care of something else with it.
no, seriously, don't take this seriously.
read it while you're taking a crap.
there are also nude women in the book, so you can also take care of something else with it.
November 21, 2007
can anyone explain the balls shots? i have an idea. but i'd like a better explanation
January 3, 2008
HAH! More social commentary and less theory. An amazing rant and a must read. Remember to take everything with a grain of salt.
August 26, 2008
I just say : it's really wonderful!
August 28, 2009
buku yang hebat. imajinasi yang liar. meskipun saya belum mengerti semua isinya, namun saya merekomendasikannya. hehe.
lagipula harganya cukup murah.
lagipula harganya cukup murah.
September 28, 2013
By turns erudite, pithy, snarkish and revealing. Who knew an architecture book could be like this?
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews