Interview By Sander Pleij

When the director called him, Rem Koolhaas knew where his Venice Biennale had to go on a magisterial inquiry into the foundations of the architecture.

To door, wall, wall, roof, floor, ceiling, elevator, stairs, windows, ramp, toilets, escalator, balcony, fireplace and swing. The fifteen elements that determine how we live. One looks forward to the upcoming opening. Around the world His buildings, his thoughts - he always changes the world a little. On a bright autumn morning Rem Koolhaas parked his black BMW 1998 in a parking lot along an Amsterdam canal. Not quite true sports car, that car, but rather the racing model that a child would draw. Moments later, he sat behind a stately desk. It promised to be a normal working day. Out of office in Rotterdam, today he was acting appointments are set in an Amsterdam hotel. He does that, is sometimes better. Only this morning he had to spend some time on a journalist who was there already half an hour for him. And what did that do? "Just about everyone reacts the same as I call your name: That's a very nasty man?" Halfway remark leaned Koolhaas back and took away from the desktop. He wiggled. , and he nodded. Stuttering said he is something like, "Yeah, that happens even with people, yes." He seemed embarrassed sure enough, it was as if he was ashamed.waited outside assistants, clients, projects, calls on millions of projects on several continents, but ... his head was so exposed ... and those little ears that stick out to the sides ... Can you about a man of six feet writing that he just looked like an injured bird?

Stuttering, he said something like, "Yeah, that happens even with people, yes

There was not much more. The conversation was over. I was there employee Stephan Petermann to. "Rem has a strong character," who says, "I will not deny it." But when he gets angry? "Only work-related things. If people are not well prepared. " Are there people who do not prepare well if they work with Rem Koolhaas! "He has the right information at the right time needed. If someone says something not yet succeeded, then the person does not put enough pressure. " Petermann said he sometimes helps' as Rem and a team do not understand each other enough. " It sounded euphemistically.

The Rotterdam, the largest building in the Netherlands. (This is still under construction.) "Oh, he hates that" most ". '

1

He is a friendly, insightful Limburger, the associate Stephan Petermann responsible for AMO, the research arm of Koolhaas' OMA. On another autumn morning we left with Koolhaas in a brasserie in Amsterdam-Zuid. Petermann and I take a croissant, but only Koolhaas cappuccino. The majority of the time he keeps his hands in the pockets of his three-quarter coat. He has already swum.Looks clean off. Or I can not write with a bit of humor about him, he asks. And he says, "I hate his architect. I actually hate architects. "Architect" he calls it, but it's worse: he's starchitect . He has been ranked among the elite corps of thestarchitects that his iconic buildings as showy peacock feathers in the cities plant.Rem Koolhaas is known for the CCTV tower in Beijing, the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, the Dutch Embassy in Berlin, you name it: Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Seattle Public Library, et cetera, et cetera, and, recently, De Rotterdam, the largest building in the Netherlands (oh, he abhors the largest.) And it's often laughable how he is described as he was a mystery, the "hard-working monk, ever busy, preservation of the richest people, the hottest brands, elusive, unattainable, visionary, unearthly, usually high above the earth in a plane different in that cool retro BMW, always working, consistently at the highest level. But now he is sitting in front of me.

Portrait by Dave Gray

I do not know why, but I ask him if everything he says is always very precise and focused. "No," he replied with a mischievous smile to Petermann, "we're in the car endlessly vague talk for us." An interview with him, Rem, goes like this: you ask a question and then you two ways get answers. The first is quite adequate, pointed, but you feel a little insecure, because the realization comes to mind that you could think of or find out, actually quite the answer yourself if you had been at least a little less lazy and do not be stupid batter sat take the time that could have spent! Koolhaas better to think about whether it will be exciting if he does not give a straight answer out loud associates. Example: What is the impact of the crisis? "Because there are no great stories anymore, you can not focus on the big stories of others. Self warehoused desires then come instead of realizing the ambitions of others. We had become wealthy if we only Louis Vuitton boutiques were going to build. Twenty-five years of market economy has made ??us to work more than private projects on government projects. The time is long gone that architects the good intentions of governments performed.

"We had become wealthy if we only Louis Vuitton boutiques were going to build '

There are no ideals in government, the hefty deregulation has strengthened the market economy fatal. The universe is military, or full of companies. Progress is fragmented, totally scattered. " Sometimes the opposite direction goes in the same sentences he can pontificate that the crisis is an inspiring time and grief observed: "When you see how we are on top of trying to get there, you'll see that there are actually no change. I keep hearing people say that the weather is good as we pick up the thread. " Words which he often used are: assumptions, intuitions, implications, articulate, concentration situations. And he succeeds you'll soon feel silly to do, because he constantly interrupts his narrative with more questions that test your knowledge: "Do you know him?", "Did you read that?" "You know how it started?" or "Do you speak Italian?" Contrast that morning in the brasserie is great: the sleek, clean Koolhaas tense as a pulled pork bladder, with beside him well in his skin sitting Stephan Petermann, who listens and carefree his croissant on his sweater crumbles .....Continue Reading

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