OMA or OMG
OMA is unique in the way in which it approaches their projects due to their intense focus on research and the impact it has on the way in which they merge the theoretical and formal aspects of architecture. Koolhaas' architecture does not correlate to a specific function or building type but rather to the layering of many different programs and the way in which these functions collide. The formal process and circulation that had been so engrained during the modernists era was traded for an experiential entanglement of program. This enabled architecture to begin to facilitate rather than prescribe spaces. I personally enjoy the ambiguity of spaces that Koolhaas produces and the way in which he allows for flexibility for the users in the immediate and surrounding spaces. He does so without a prescribed set of rules or without a complete understanding of what the architecture may be.
EK, I 100% agree, the ambiguity provides the need for Architects to orchestrate spaces and allows each user to have their own individual experience within the same spaces. Vs before, a library was just a library, each user had the same "machine" like process of what they did in a library.
ReplyDeleteOMA and Koolhaas definitely have a unique way of going about the design process. There aren't many or even any firms that have process quite like theirs. It's rare to see a firm that comes to the table with questions vs answers and lets the users define how the space will be used.
ReplyDelete