Watch rem koolhaas present s,m,l,xl at the aa in 1995. Other team projects explored lagos and dubai the gulf region. A documentary about legendary architect and master provocateur rem koolhaas. International audiencearchitect rem koolhaas and his team from harvard regard lagos as an extreme and pathological form of the city in africa and as a paradigmatic case of a modern avantgarde city. The literature on lagos produced by koolhaas and the harvard project on the city has been both lauded and criticized by several sources. Lagos was different, booming faster than the infrastructure could keep up, but a kind of groundup structure and organisation prevailed. Dubai is another state planned turbocity, suited to koolhaas sympathetic analyses which were published in a 550page journal edition almanakh. With an estimated population of 14 million now, lagos is one of the fastest growing cities on the african continent. Ten years ago, architect and author rem koolhaas cowrote mutation. Rem koolhaas and peter eisenman on todays critical architectural discourse issues. Rem koolhaas sad to say, presently do not have got information regarding the musician rem koolhaas.
Two documentary films by bert haanstra for which his father wrote the scenarios were nominated for an academy award for. Lagos shows how a city can recover from a deep, deep pit. Koolhaas mit lecture was intended to focus on lagos. In rehabilitating the informality at work in lagos, they put forward a romanticized vision of a self. Dineen, michael cabanatuan, marisa lagos updated 4. Architect rem koolhaas and his team from harvard regard lagos as an extreme and pathological form of the city in africa and as a paradigmatic case of a modern avant. On the other hand, we would value in case you have just about any information about that, and so are prepared to give that. Celebrated harvard architecture professor rem koolhaas spent four years there researching the effects on such explosive growth, and. As a symbol of west african urbanism, lagos contradicts almost every defining feature of the moderna city. Using small digital cameras, the filmmaker documented koolhaas documenting lagos to grasp and convey a sense of the new urban life that was being invented there.
A version of this article appeared in mit tech talk on november 22, 2006 download pdf. Lagos, in the 1990s, was the ultimate dysfunctional city and an. As architects rem koolhaas and kunle adeyemi noted in an interview, these were lagos darkest times. The installation is a patchwork, bringing together the urban structures of guangzhou, dubai, lagos and london. This essay also examines the inherent political economy of such an aerial plane of vision.
A conversation with rem koolhaas and kent kleinman cornellcast. In particular, it focuses on the prevalence of the lowoblique plane of vision in koolhaas s helicopterbased photographs of the immense, sprawling complexity of lagos. Lagos koolhaas and partisan politics in nigeria core. Find out why close project on the city lagos rem koolhaas jorge villao. Just finished looking at the lagos films with rem koolhaas lagos wide and close and lagos koolhaas as well as read a piece of the lagos handbook that gsd students produced with koolhaas loeb library special collections. Those who have looked at lagos as an object of study most famously the architect rem koolhaas take it as an exemplar of selfordering. For the past four years, he, and a team of students of the harvard project on the city, have come to lagos regularly to research the type of urbanity. Rem koolhaas rotterdam, 1944 founded oma in 1975 together with elia and zoe zenghelis and madelon vriesendorp.
Author of informal, oma rem koolhaas, 19871993, rem koolhaas, content, small, medium, large, extralarge, oma 30, the gulf, colours. Rem koolhaas is a former student and tutor at the aa and founder of oma. Oma rem koolhaas, 19871993 by rem koolhaas 3 editions first published in 1994 not in library. As a symbol of west african urbanism, lagos contradicts almost every.
His father was a novelist, critic, and screenwriter. Koolhaas evolving view of planning and infrastructure and the discussion of makoko as a prototype for the growth of lagos and. Architect rem koolhaas and a team of students from the harvard project on the city, went to lagos regularly to research the type of urbanity that is produced by uncontrolled, explosive population. This article explores issues of aerial visuality through dutch architect rem koolhaas s recent work on urban planning in lagos, nigeria. In rehabilitating the informality at work in lagos, they put forward a romanticized vision of a selfregulatory system working outside state. Lagoskoolhaas 2002 documentary architect rem koolhaas and a team of students from the harvard. How lagos became africas largest megacity quartz africa. A cultural and historical companion african affairs oxford. The new yorker article sniped at researchers who view lagos as a hip icon of the latest global trends.
How it works is the result of more than eight years of research in lagos, nigeria. Forward, 2002, and studies on rome, lagos, moscow, and beijing. She says, lagos is a city that holds up a mirror to him koolhaas, a city that is endlessly flexible, terribly creative and constantly improvising. Rem koolhaas winner of architectures nobel, the pritzker architecture prize is a professor of architecture and urban design at harvard. Koolhaas has been studying conditions in lagos for 11 years and has written articles and an upcoming book that see the african megacity as a harbinger of future urban development. Less attention, however, has been paid to two documentary. In 1995, his book s,m,l,xl summarized the work of oma in a novel about architecture. He gained worldwide notice for his small, lowtech response to a big challenge. At new yorks guggenheim museum, a thoughtprovoking exhibition recently opened with virtually no art. Sustainable makokos floating school in nigeria is finally. Controversial architect koolhaas discusses future of cities mit news. Great leap forward harvard design school project on the. Remment koolhaas, usually abbreviated to rem koolhaas, was born on 17 november 1944 in rotterdam, netherlands, to anton koolhaas 19121992 and selinde pietertje roosenburg born 1920.
Rem koolhaas is an internationally acclaimed architect and urbanist. This article seeks to evaluate rem koolhaas s investigations of the subsaharan megapolis of lagos, nigeria. He graduated from the architectural association in london and in 1978 published delirious new york. After studying nigerias biggest city, he says, lagos is not catching up with us. Adeyemi was trained in the office of highly influential dutch architect rem koolhaas. For the past four years koolhaas and students from the harvard project on the city have come to lagos regularly to research the type of urban environment that is produced by explosive population growth.