Rem Koolhaas: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Rem Koolhaas built OMA on a diet of Soviet constructivism, Manhattan skyscraper delirium, pulp cinema and pop art — a journalist and screenwriter before he ever drew a plan. This mix traces the Corbusian and constructivist sources behind Delirious New York, the Rotterdam modernism that shaped OMA's home base, and the generation of Dutch and Danish architects who grew out of his office.

The Kynda mix for Rem Koolhaas

• Key Influence · Vers une architecture (Towards a New Architecture) by Le Corbusier (1923). Koolhaas has repeatedly framed his own manifesto-writing against Le Corbusier, whose polemical book-as-weapon model Delirious New York both mimics and mocks. Le Corbusier's obsession with Manhattan, his Plan Voisin and his 1935 American travelogue supply the villain-hero of Koolhaas's Manhattan argument: the European who saw the skyscraper and wanted to rationalise it, where Koolhaas wanted to celebrate its congestion.
• Influencia Obscura · Lenin Institute (project) by Ivan Leonidov (1927). Koolhaas's first sustained architectural research was on Soviet constructivism, and Leonidov — the near-unbuilt visionary of suspended spheres and cable-hung volumes — became his private saint. OMA's early competition entries borrow Leonidov's diagrammatic daring and floating geometries, and Koolhaas has long championed his drawings as proof that constructivism was a programme machine rather than a style.
• Local Roots · Van Nelle Factory by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt (1931). The glass-and-steel tobacco factory on the Schie is Rotterdam's modernist masterpiece and the reason Koolhaas's city treats industrial transparency as native language. OMA settled in Rotterdam in the 1980s partly because the bombed, rebuilt port city offered none of Amsterdam's preciousness; the Van Nelle's conveyor bridges and curtain walls prefigure the machinic honesty of OMA's Kunsthal a few kilometres away.
• Beyond the Medium · The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí by Salvador Dalí (1942). Delirious New York explicitly appropriates Dalí's paranoid-critical method, turning surrealist paranoia into a design technique for reading Manhattan's skyscrapers as unconscious constructions. Koolhaas pairs Dalí with Le Corbusier as the book's twin protagonists, and the Dalí of self-mythologising autobiography also modelled the shameless manifesto voice Koolhaas adopted as a former journalist.
• Peer · Parc de la Villette by Bernard Tschumi (1987). Tschumi and Koolhaas both taught at the Architectural Association in the 1970s, both theorised programme and event over form, and both entered the 1982 La Villette competition — Tschumi won, OMA's celebrated layered-programme scheme lost and became one of the most reproduced unbuilt projects of the decade. The park's red follies and its diagram of superimposed systems are the peer argument made concrete.
• From the Canon · Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan by Rem Koolhaas (1978). Written after Koolhaas's time in New York on a Harkness fellowship, this retroactive manifesto reads Manhattan's grid, Coney Island and the Downtown Athletic Club as an unconscious theory of congestion, with illustrations by Madelon Vriesendorp. It reset architectural writing: research, wit and appropriated surrealist method instead of formal doctrine, and it remains the founding document of OMA's thinking.
• Key Collaborator · Vitra Fire Station by Zaha Hadid (1993). Hadid studied under Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis at the Architectural Association and then worked with OMA in its early London years before opening her own office. Her first completed building, the shard-like fire station at Weil am Rhein, carries the constructivist geometries she and Koolhaas both mined from Malevich and Leonidov, executed with a formal ferocity that outran her teacher's.
• Legacy · 8 House by Bjarke Ingels Group (2010). Bjarke Ingels worked at OMA in Rotterdam in the late 1990s before founding PLOT and then BIG, and has been open about Koolhaas as the formative model — including the manifesto-comic Yes Is More echoing S,M,L,XL's publishing bravado. The figure-eight housing loop in Ørestad, with its continuous ramped street, is pure OMA programme-stacking pushed toward optimism.

What influenced Rem Koolhaas

• Beyond the Valley of the Dolls by Russ Meyer (1970). Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Russ Meyer) — culture for Rem Koolhaas “"It was a very important age for me," Koolhaas recalls "and I really lived as an Asian." In 1969, Koolhaas co-wrote The White Slave, a Dutch film noir, and later wrote an unproduced script for American soft-porn king Russ Meyer.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• New Babylon by Constant Nieuwenhuys (1959). New Babylon (Constant Nieuwenhuys) — ghost for Rem Koolhaas “According to the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, Nieuwenhuys has made a lot of architects think with his New Babylon: "He was an example of courage".” (en.wikipedia.org)
• The Continuous Monument by Superstudio (1969). The Continuous Monument (Superstudio) — ghost for Rem Koolhaas “Critics agree that the work of Superstudio was influential, or even entirely inspirational to, among others, architects like Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas and Bernard Tschumi.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Metabolism. Koolhaas acknowledged the Japanese Metabolist Movement anticipated his 'chance-like' approach to city life. “As Koolhaas himself has acknowledged, this approach had already been evident in the Japanese Metabolist Movement in the 1960s and early 1970s.” (Wikipedia)
• Oswald Mathias Ungers. Koolhaas studied under Ungers at Cornell University via a Harkness Fellowship. “he received a Commonwealth Fund (Harkness) Fellowship to study with Oswald Mathias Ungers at Cornell University in Ithaca , New York” (Wikipedia)
• The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí by Salvador Dalí (1942). The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí (Salvador Dalí) — culture for Rem Koolhaas (wikidata.org)
• Seagram Building by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Seagram Building (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe) — titan for Rem Koolhaas (wikidata.org)
• Vers une architecture (Towards a New Architecture) by Le Corbusier (1923). Vers une architecture (Towards a New Architecture) (Le Corbusier) — titan for Rem Koolhaas
• Lenin Institute (project) by Ivan Leonidov (1927). Lenin Institute (project) (Ivan Leonidov) — ghost for Rem Koolhaas

Peers and kindred spirits

• Madelon Vriesendorp. Koolhaas co-founded OMA together with Madelon Vriesendorp, who later became his wife. (also via Flagrant Délit) “the office he founded in 1975 together with architects Elia Zenghelis , Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp in London.” (Wikipedia)
• De Rotterdam. Establishes De Rotterdam building was designed by architect Rem Koolhaas and his firm OMA. “THE ENORMOUS, SIX-YEAR-OLD "DE ROTTERDAM" BUILDING-- STACKS OF CUBES THAT LOOK DIFFERENT FROM EVERY DIRECTION-- BY POWERHOUSE ARCHITECT REM KOOLHAAS AND HIS ROTTERDAM-BASED DESIGN FIRM, O.M.A.” (PBS NewsHour (public broadcasting))
• Russ Meyer. Koolhaas wrote an unproduced screenplay for filmmaker Russ Meyer. (also via Beyond the Valley of the Dolls) “later wrote an unproduced script for American soft-porn king Russ Meyer” (Wikipedia)
• Flagrant Délit by Madelon Vriesendorp (1975). Flagrant Délit (Madelon Vriesendorp) — collaborator for Rem Koolhaas “Koolhaas first came to public and critical attention with OMA (The Office for Metropolitan Architecture), the office he founded in 1975 together with architects Elia Zenghelis, Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp in London.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry (1997). Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (Frank Gehry) — peer for Rem Koolhaas “Each architect had to design a stage-like "frontage" to a Potemkin-type internal street; the façades by Costantino Dardi, Frank Gehry and OMA were the only ones that did not employ Post-Modern architecture motifs or historical references.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Denise Scott Brown. Koolhaas's book Content featured an interview with architect Denise Scott Brown. “as well as interviews with Martha Stewart and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown” (Wikipedia)
• Harvard University. Establishes that architect Rem Koolhaas has taught at Harvard on the subject of shopping and retail space. “Enter Rem Koolhaas, the Dutch architect, a Pritzker Prize winner, has been teaching and writing about shopping and retail space at Harvard.” (The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (public broadcasting))
• Mark Wigley. Koolhaas collaborated with Mark Wigley to found Volume Magazine. “Rem Koolhaas co-founded Volume Magazine together with Mark Wigley and Ole Bouman.” (Wikipedia)
• Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Koolhaas holds a professorship at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. “Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University” (Wikipedia)
• Prada. Establishes Koolhaas's design collaboration with the luxury brand Prada on its flagship store. “He's also the architect behind the new Prada Store in Manhattan's Soho District.” (The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (public broadcasting))
• American Philosophical Society. Koolhaas became a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2014. “He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2014.” (Wikipedia)
• Volume Magazine. Koolhaas co-founded Volume Magazine in 2005. “Rem Koolhaas co-founded Volume Magazine together with Mark Wigley and Ole Bouman.” (Wikipedia)
• Hans Ulrich Obrist. Koolhaas co-authored Project Japan: Metabolism Talks with Hans Ulrich Obrist. “Project Japan. Metabolism Talks... (2011) ( with Hans Ulrich Obrist )” (Wikipedia)
• Zoe Zenghelis. Koolhaas co-founded OMA together with Zoe Zenghelis. “the office he founded in 1975 together with architects Elia Zenghelis , Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp in London.” (Wikipedia)
• Vitra Fire Station by Zaha Hadid. Vitra Fire Station (Zaha Hadid) — collaborator for Rem Koolhaas “They were later joined by one of Koolhaas's students, Zaha Hadid – who would soon go on to achieve success in her own right.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Ole Bouman. Koolhaas collaborated with Ole Bouman to found Volume Magazine. “Rem Koolhaas co-founded Volume Magazine together with Mark Wigley and Ole Bouman.” (Wikipedia)
• Office for Metropolitan Architecture. Koolhaas founded OMA in 1975. “the office he founded in 1975 together with architects Elia Zenghelis , Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp in London.” (Wikipedia)
• Elia Zenghelis. Koolhaas co-founded OMA together with Elia Zenghelis. “the office he founded in 1975 together with architects Elia Zenghelis , Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp in London.” (Wikipedia)
• Massive Change by Bruce Mau (2004). Massive Change (Bruce Mau) — collaborator for Rem Koolhaas “Zone 1/2: The Contemporary City, a complex compendium of critical thinking about urbanism from philosophers such as Gilles Deleuze and Paul Virilio, architects Rem Koolhaas and Christopher Alexander remains one of his most notable works.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Robert Venturi (1925). Koolhaas's book Content featured an interview with architect Robert Venturi. “as well as interviews with Martha Stewart and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown” (Wikipedia)
• Peter Eisenman. Koolhaas wrote Delirious New York while a visiting scholar under Peter Eisenman's directorship. “which was written while he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York, directed by Peter Eisenman .” (Wikipedia)
• Parc de la Villette by Bernard Tschumi (1987). Parc de la Villette (Bernard Tschumi) — peer for Rem Koolhaas (wikidata.org)
• Van Nelle Factory by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt (1931). Van Nelle Factory (Brinkman & Van der Vlugt) — geography for Rem Koolhaas (wikidata.org)
• Amsterdam Orphanage by Aldo van Eyck (1960). Amsterdam Orphanage (Aldo van Eyck) — geography for Rem Koolhaas
• Miuccia Prada (1949). Prada Epicenter, New York (Rem Koolhaas / OMA) — collaborator for Miuccia Prada (via Prada Epicenter, New York)

Who Rem Koolhaas influenced

• Zaha Hadid (1950). Hadid studied under Koolhaas at the AA. (also via Delirious New York, Vitra Fire Station) “They were later joined by one of Koolhaas's students, Zaha Hadid – who would soon go on to achieve success in her own right.” (Wikipedia)
• Virgil Abloh (1980). A building designed by architect Rem Koolhaas sparked Abloh's interest in fashion. (also via S, M, L, XL) “Koolhaas's building helped spark his interest in fashion.” (Wikipedia)
• Villa VPRO by MVRDV (1997). Villa VPRO (MVRDV) — legacy for Rem Koolhaas “== Influences == In a 2010 interview with Designboom, Winy Maas cited Rem Koolhaas as one of the most important people that he had worked with and for, describing parts of MVRDV's work as intellectual responses to Koolhaas's questions.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• 8 House by Bjarke Ingels Group (2010). 8 House (Bjarke Ingels Group) — legacy for Rem Koolhaas