Rem
Koolhaas Wins Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement
The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement for the 12th International
Architecture Exhibition (Venice, Giardini and Arsenale, 29th August –
21st November, 2010) has been awarded to the Dutch architect, Rem
Koolhaas. The decision was taken by the Board of the Biennale di
Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, upon the proposal of the Director of
the 12th Exhibition, Kazuyo Sejima.
“Rem Koolhaas has expanded the possibilities of architecture. He has
focused on the exchanges between people in space. He creates buildings
that bring people together and in this way forms ambitious goals for
architecture. His influence on the world has come well beyond
architecture. People from very diverse fields feel a great freedom from
his work.“
Mentioned in Time in 2008 as one of the 100 most influential people in
the world, in 1975 Rem Koolhaas – together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis
and Madelon Vriesendorp – founded OMA (Office for Metropolitan
Architecture). The most important works by Koolhaas and OMA include the
Netherlands Dance Theatre at The Hague, the Nexus Housing at Fukuoka in
Japan, the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, the Grand Palais of Euralille and
Lille, the Villa dall’Ava, the Très Grande Bibliothèque and the Seattle
Public Library. Together with Koolhaas’s reflections on contemporary
society, these buildings appear in his book, S,M,L,XL (1995), written as
though it were a “novel about architecture”. In 1978, he wrote
Delirious New York: a retroactive manifesto for Manhattan, which has
become a classic of contemporary architectural theory. In 2000, he won
the Pritzker Prize.
The Board has also decided to award a special commemorative Golden Lion
in memory of the Japanese architect, Kazuo Shinohara, who died in 2006
and who had a broad influence on the Japanese architectural scene,
giving rise to the so-called “school of Shinohara”, the inspiration for
the works of Toyo Ito, Kazunari Sakamoto and Itsuko Hasegawa.
“Shinohara was a person who thought directly about the symbolism
inherent in space and how that symbolism relates to individuals. In one
way, he thought about how that symbolism was formed in the context of
Japanese tradition but in another, he was concerned with more abstract
geometries and the randomness of the city. With this research, he
created very special and very sensitive houses that helped him form a
thesis critical of modern architecture. People in Japan and around the
world have been fascinated by him. I’m proposing to honor him here
because he thought about the power of space on a very personal level.”
Source: Bustler
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