Editing Rem Koolhaas (section)

==Architectural theory==

===''Delirious New York''===
Koolhaas's book ''[[Delirious New York]]'' set the pace for his career. Koolhaas analyzes the "chance-like" nature of city life: "The City is an addictive machine from which there is no escape" "Rem Koolhaas...defined the city as a collection of 'red hot spots'."<ref>Klingmann, A (2007). ''Brandscapes: Architecture in the Experience Economy''. MIT Press, {{ISBN|978-0-262-51503-0}}.</ref> ([[Anna Klingmann]]).  As Koolhaas himself has acknowledged, this approach had already been evident in the Japanese [[Metabolist Movement]] in the 1960s and early 1970s.

A key aspect of architecture that Koolhaas interrogates is the "[[brief (architecture)|Program]]": with the rise of modernism in the 20th century the "Program" became the key theme of architectural design. The notion of the Program involves "an act to edit function and human activities" as the pretext of architectural design: epitomised in the maxim [[form follows function]], first popularised by architect [[Louis Henri Sullivan|Louis Sullivan]] at the beginning of the 20th century. The notion was first questioned in ''Delirious New York'', in his analysis of high-rise architecture in Manhattan. An early design method derived from such thinking was "cross-programming", introducing unexpected functions in room programmes, such as running tracks in skyscrapers. More recently, Koolhaas unsuccessfully proposed the inclusion of hospital units for the homeless into the Seattle Public Library project (2003).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.archdaily.com/449282/happy-birthday-rem-koolhaas-2|title=Spotlight: Rem Koolhaas|date=17 November 2018|website=ArchDaily}}</ref>

===Project on the city===
Koolhaas' next publications were a by-product of his position as professor at [[Harvard University]], in the [[Harvard Graduate School of Design|Design school]]'s "Project on the City"; firstly the 720-page ''Mutations'',<ref>Koolhaas, Rem ''et al.'' (2001) ''Mutations'', Arc en rêve centre d’architecture, Bordeaux, {{ISBN|978-84-95273-51-2}}.</ref> followed by ''The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping'' (2002)<ref>Koolhaas, Rem; Chung, Chuihua Judy; Inaba, Jeffrey and Leong, Sze Tsung (2002) ''The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping. Harvard Design School Project on the City 2'', Taschen, New York, {{ISBN|978-3-8228-6047-2}}</ref> and ''The Great Leap Forward'' (2002).<ref>Koolhaas, Rem ''et al.'' (2002) ''The Great Leap Forward. Harvard Design School Project on the City'', Taschen, New York, {{ISBN|978-3-8228-6048-9}}</ref>

All three books published student work analysing what others would regard as "non-cities", sprawling conglomerates such as [[Lagos]] in Nigeria, west Africa, which the authors argue are highly functional despite a lack of infrastructure. The authors also examine the influence of shopping habits and the recent rapid growth of cities in China. Critics of the books have criticised Koolhaas for being cynical,<ref>La Cecla, Franco (2020) "Against Urbanism", PM Press, {{ISBN|978-1-62963-235-3}}</ref> – as if Western [[capitalism]] and [[globalization]] demolish all cultural identity – highlighted in the notion expounded in the books that "In the end, there will be little else for us to do but shop". Perhaps such caustic cynicism can be read as a "realism" about the transformation of cultural life, where airports and even museums (due to finance problems) rely just as much on operating gift shops. It does, however, demonstrate one of the architect's characteristic devices for deflecting criticism: attack the client or subject of study after completing the work.

When it comes to transforming these observations into practice, Koolhaas mobilizes what he regards as the omnipotent forces of urbanism into unique design forms and connections organised along the lines of present-day society. Koolhaas continuously incorporates his observations of the contemporary city within his design activities: calling such a condition the ‘culture of congestion’. Again, shopping is examined for "intellectual comfort", whilst the unregulated taste and densification of Chinese cities is analysed according to "performance", a criterion involving variables with debatable credibility: density, newness, shape, size, money etc.

In 2003, ''Content'', a 544-page magazine-style book designed by &&& Creative and published by Koolhaas, gives an overview of the last decade of [[Office for Metropolitan Architecture|OMA]] projects<ref>Koolhaas, Rem (2003) ''Content'', Taschen, New York, {{ISBN|978-3-8228-3070-3}}</ref> including his designs for the [[Prada]] shops,<ref name="Luxury" /> the [[Seattle Public Library]], a plan to save [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]] from Harvard by rechanneling the [[Charles River]], Lagos' future as Earth's third-biggest city, as well as interviews with [[Martha Stewart]] and [[Robert Venturi]] and [[Denise Scott Brown]].

===Volume Magazine===
In 2005, Rem Koolhaas co-founded ''[[Volume Magazine]]'' together with [[Mark Wigley]] and [[Ole Bouman]]. ''Volume Magazine'' – the collaborative project by Archis (Amsterdam), AMO and C-lab ([[Columbia University]] NY) – is a dynamic experimental think tank devoted to the process of spatial and cultural reflexivity. It goes beyond architecture's definition of ‘making buildings’ and reaches out for global views on architecture and design, broader attitudes to social structures, and creating environments to live in. The magazine stands for a journalism which detects and anticipates, is proactive and even pre-emptive – a journalism which uncovers potentialities, rather than covering done deals.