REFERENCES
1. Rem Koolhaas, ‘What ever happened to Urbanism?’, in S,M,L,XL, The
Monicelli Press (Newyork, 1995), 968.
2. “OMA, Maison A Bordeaux, France, Bordeaux 1998”, accessed on 17
September, 2013, http://www.oma.eu/projects/1998/maison-%C3%A0-bordeaux.
3. Davey Kim & Dickson, ‘Architecture and Freedom?: Programmatic Innovation in the Work of Koolhaas/OMA’ (Association of Collegiate Schools of
Architecture, Inc, 2002).
4. “Cecil Balmond and Toyo Ito: Concerning Fluid Spaces”, A+ U 404, A+U
Publishing (Tokyo, 2004), 44.
5. “OMA: Rem Koolhaas” EL Croquis 53+79, El Croquis (August 2006): 142
6. Davey Kim & Dickson, ‘Architecture and Freedom?’.
IMAGE CREDITS
1. “OMA: Rem Koolhaas” EL Croquis 53+79, El Croquis (August 2006): 130
2. Wong, Jessica (2012), University of New South Wales. Unpublished.
3. “Cecil Balmond and Toyo Ito: Concerning Fluid Spaces”, A+ U 404, A+U
Publishing (Tokyo, 2004), 45.
4. Wong, Jessica (2012), University of New South Wales. Unpublished.
THE MODERNS
REM KOOLHAAS
Jessica Wong z3414487
History and Theory 2
ARCH 1222
As modernisation transforms and sets out new and dynamic series of urban conditions, architects are compelled to similarly push the limits of architectural ideals to facilitate this change. However while many modern architects such as Le Corbusier respond with models that imagine a universal utopian ideal for the modern city, Dutch architect, Rem Koolhaas reveals a much more fluid response, suggesting that architecture should no longer be based on the notion of order or a definitive structure and form. He suggests that these no longer withstand the continual change of the modern world and rather, designs architecture to offer a sense of freedom and ‘uncertainty’1.
Koolhaas stages this uncertainty through his treatment of spatial program as seen in the Bordeaux house. Re-interoperating Le Corbusier’s idea of ‘The house is a machine for living”, Koolhaas utilises a ‘machine’, the elevator, at the ‘heart of the house’ as a way of cross programming2. The elevator allows individuals to access the lower level that sits as a heavy mass carved into a hill, to the most transparent and occupied central level to finally the privacy of bedrooms, all in a single vertical trajectory. The functional juxtapositions that result from this vertical trajectory, liberates the Bordeux House from any rigid spatial program to
