Theme Editors:

Job Floris, MONADNOCK / Academy of Architecture, Rotterdam 

Christophe van Gerrewey, Ghent University

Klaske Havik, TUDelft

Véronique Patteeuw, ENSAP Lille

Lara Schrijver, UAntwerp

In 1989, from March 4th to April 16th, the first major retrospective exhibition in the Netherlands of the work of O.M.A./Rem Koolhaas, was organised in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. Partly,O.M.A. – The First Decade was organized (and received) as a reckoning with Koolhaas’ home country: the office had lost many major competitions, for example in Den Haag or Rotterdam. Only a third of the 42 projects O.M.A. made between 1978 and 1989 got executed. At the opening night of the exhibition, Koolhaas said to a Dutch newspaper: ‘I believe that the Netherlands would have been a better country if at least a part of our plans were realised, and I say this rather stoically than rancorously.’ With this theme issue of OASE we would like to transcend national or polemical discussions, and look at the architectural production of O.M.A. during this first decade, leading to 1989 – a mythical but at the same time not very well-known period in the history of the office. We want to take a closer and critical look at the proposals, plans and projects themselves, for example in order to examine if – and why – they would indeed have contributed to a better spatial or social environment. Rather than focusing on – especially in the recent O.M.A.-research – important issues such as mediatisation, reception or discursive embeddedness, we want to contribute to this research by means of a fresh critical look on the architectural works. In order to do so, we seek two different kinds of contributions. On the one hand, authors are invited to pick one O.M.A.-project out of the enclosed list of 42 items (produced between 1978 and 1989), and discuss it – short (maximum 1.5000 words) but insightful. What was at stake? What was the precise architectural move or decision? And how did the design fail or succeed? On the other hand, authors are invited to discuss one koolhaasian architectural technique from this period, in a more voluminous text (up to 2.000 words). What kind of formal regime was installed, and how did it deal with context? Was there a filiation visible with contemporary or historical architecture? And what where the ideas and convictions behind these architectural tactics? We hope that this issue of OASE will shed new light on what was one of the most productive and provocative decades in the history of any modern architectural practice, exactly by showing how the architecture of O.M.A. ‘worked’ – spatially, formally and contextually. The submission deadline for all manuscripts (in English or in Dutch) for this theme issue is August 15, 2014, 5 pm US Eastern Time Zone. Submission does not guarantee publication. Accepted articles will be published in issue 94 (April 2015). For author instructions please consult the submission guidelines. Refer all inquiries to: christophe.vangerrewey@ugent.be

1. FIRSTDECADE.pdf 35.6 KB

   List of O.M.A. projects

2. OASE_guidelines for articles.pdf 50.8 KB

   Guidelines for articles

3. OASE_kopijaanwijzingen.pdf 55.9 KB

   Kopij-aanwijzingen

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