Rem Koolhaas: Elements of Architecture

Architecture under the microscope</strong><br /> Rem Koolhaas’s essential toolkit to building anatomies<br /><br /> “A resource that can be revisited over and over again, one that will arm the current and future designers of our built world with the knowledge they’ll need to address the issues they have yet to even confront.”<br /> -ArchDaily<br /><br /> Architecture is a compelling <strong>mixture of stability and flux</strong>. In its solid forms, time and space collide, amalgamating distant influences, <strong>elements that have been around for over 5,000 years and others that were (re-)invented yesterday</strong>.<br /><br /><em>Elements of Architecture</em> focuses on the fragments of the rich and complex architectural collage. Window, facade, balcony, corridor, fireplace, stair, escalator, elevator: The book seeks to excavate the <strong>micro-narratives of building detail. </strong>The result is no single history, but rather the web of origins, contaminations, similarities, and differences in architectural evolution, including the influence of <strong>technological advances, climactic adaptation, political calculation, economic contexts, regulatory requirements, </strong>and<strong> new digital regimes</strong>.<br /><br /> Derived from Koolhaas’ exhaustive and much-lauded exhibition at the<strong> 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale</strong>, this is an essential toolkit to understanding the pieces, parts, and fundamentals that comprise structure around the globe. Designed by <strong>Irma Boom</strong>, the book contains essays from <strong>Rem Koolhaas</strong>, <strong>Stephan Trueby</strong>, <strong>Manfredo di Robilant</strong>, and <strong>Jeffrey Inaba;</strong> interviews with <strong>Werner Sobek </strong>and <strong>Tony Fadell</strong> (of Nest); and an <strong>exclusive photo essay by Wolfgang Tillmans</strong>. <p/>”A mammoth undertaking: smashing open the last 100 years of architecture and ripping out its innards for forensic analysis.”
<em> — The Guardian</em>

About the Author

Rem Koolhaas is a cofounder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. Having worked as a journalist and scriptwriter before becoming an architect, in 1978 he published Delirious New York. His 1996 book S,M,L,XL summarized the work of OMA and established connections of contemporary society and architecture. He was listed among TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2008, and among many international awards and exhibitions he received the Pritzker Prize (2000) and the Praemium Imperiale (2003). He directed the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, coinciding with the first publication of Elements of Architecture. Harvard Graduate School of Design Stephan Truby James Westcott Stephan Petermann Wolfgang Tillmans was born in Remscheid, Germany, in 1968 and studied at Bournemouth & Poole College of Art and Design. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of his generation. His work, whilst appearing to capture the immediacy of the moment and character of the subject, also examines the dynamics of photographic representation. From the outset he ignored the traditional separation of art exhibited in a gallery from images and ideas conveyed through other forms of publication, giving equal weight to both. His expansive floor to ceiling installations feature images of subcultures and political movements, as well as portraits, landscapes, still-lives and abstract imagery varying in scale from postcard- to wall-sized prints. His work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1996 and Tate Britain, London, in a major retrospective in 2003. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 2000. Irma Boom is a graphic designer specialized in making books. Since founding Irma Boom Office in 1990, she has worked with the likes of Chanel, the United Nations, OMA/Rem Koolhaas, Fondazione Prada, Pirelli, and Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. She received the Gutenberg Prize and the Johannes Vermeer Prize, the Dutch state prize for the arts, among others. Her work is in a permanent collection of the Design and Architecture Department of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Since 1992, Boom is a Senior Critic at Yale University in the USA.