OMA/AMO

Profile

OMA is a leading international partnership practicing architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis. OMA's buildings and masterplans around the world insist on intelligent forms while inventing new possibilities for content and everyday use. OMA is led by ten partners – Rem Koolhaas, Ellen van Loon, Reinier de Graaf, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, David Gianotten, Chris van Duijn, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Jason Long and Michael Kokora – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Beijing, Hong Kong, Doha and Dubai.

OMA-designed buildings currently under construction include Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow, Taipei Performing Arts Centre, Qatar National Library, Qatar Foundation Headquarters, Bibliothèque Multimédia à Vocation Régionale in Caen, Bryghusprojektet in Copenhagen, Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, and Faena Arts Center in Miami.
OMA's recently completed projects include Fondazione Prada in Milan (2015); G-Star Headquarters in Amsterdam (2014); Shenzhen Stock Exchange (2013); De Rotterdam, a large mixed-use tower in the Netherlands (2013); CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012); New Court, the headquarters for Rothschild Bank in London (2011); Milstein Hall at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York (2011); and Maggie's Centre, a cancer care centre in Glasgow (2011). Earlier buildings include Casa da Música in Porto (2005), Seattle Central Library (2004), and Netherlands Embassy in Berlin (2003).

OMA
The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is a leading international partnership practicing contemporary architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis. The office is led by six partners – Rem Koolhaas, Ole Scheeren, Ellen van Loon, Reinier de Graaf, Shohei Shigematsu and Managing Partner, Victor van der Chijs – and employs a staff of around 220 of more than 35 nationalities. Architects, researchers, designers, model makers, industrial designers and graphic designers work in close collaboration, and expert consultants are intimately involved from the beginning of the design process.

OMA's recently completed projects include Prada Transformer, a rotating multi-use pavilion in Seoul (2009), the Zeche Zollverein Historical Museum and masterplan in Essen (2006), the Seoul National University Museum of Art (2005), the much acclaimed Casa da Música in Porto (2005), the Prada Epicenter in Los Angeles (2004), the Seattle Central Library (2004), the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul (2004), the Netherlands Embassy in Berlin (2003), the IIT Campus Center in Chicago (2003), and the Prada Epicenter in New York (2001).

The work of Rem Koolhaas and OMA has won several international awards including the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2000, the Praemium Imperiale (Japan) in 2003, the RIBA Gold Medal (UK) in 2004 and the Mies van der Rohe – European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture (2005). To accommodate a range of projects throughout the world, OMA maintains offices in Europe (OMA*AMO Rotterdam), North America (OMA*AMO Architecture PC New York), Asia (OMA Beijing). OMA also recently established an office in Hong Kong for its work on several projects in the region.

AMO
The counterpart to OMA's architectural practice is AMO, a design and research studio based in the company's Rotterdam office. While OMA remains dedicated to the realization of buildings and masterplans, AMO often works in parallel for the same clients as a think tank that operates in areas beyond the traditional boundaries of architecture and urbanism, including media, politics, technology, art, curating, publishing, and graphic design.

This is the case with Prada: AMO's research into identity, in-store technology, and new possibilities of content-production in fashion helped generate OMA's architectural designs for new Prada epicenter stores in New York and Los Angeles. In 2004, AMO was commissioned by the European Union to study its visual communication, and designed a coloured "barcode" flag – combining the flags of all member states – that was used during the Austrian presidency of the EU. AMO also produced a major exhibition for the EU that travelled from Brussels to Vienna, Munich and Rotterdam.

AMO has consulted with Universal Studios, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, Heineken, Ikea, Condé Nast and Harvard University, produced exhibitions at the Venice Biennale (on the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg) and Venice Architecture Biennale (on the development of the Gulf), and guest-edited issues of the magazines Wired and Domus. Recent projects include the ongoing curatorial masterplan for the Hermitage, curating the exhibition 'Dubai Next' at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, and editing Al Manakh, a guide to the rapid transformation of the Gulf region.


Biography
Rem Koolhaas
Rem Koolhaas (Rotterdam, 1944) founded OMA in 1975 together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp. He graduated from the Architectural Association in London and in 1978 published Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. In 1995, his book S,M,L,XL summarized the work of OMA in "a novel about architecture". He heads the work of both OMA and AMO, the research branch of OMA, operating in areas beyond the realm of architecture such as media, politics, renewable energy and fashion. Koolhaas is a professor at Harvard University where he conducts the Project on the City. In 2014, he was the director of the 14th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, Fundamentals.

Photography by Dominik Gigler / © OMA

Ellen van Loon
Ellen van Loon joined OMA in 1998 and has led several award-winning building projects that combine sophisticated design with precise execution. Some of her most significant contributions include the new G-Star Headquarters in Amsterdam (2014), De Rotterdam, the largest building in the Netherlands (2013) New Court, the Rothschild Bank headquarters in London (2011); exterior and interior design for Maggie's Centre near Glasgow (2011); the Prada Transformer pavilion in Seoul (2009); Casa da Musica in Porto (2005), winner of the 2007 RIBA Award; and the Dutch Embassy in Berlin (2003), winner of the European Union Mies van der Rohe award in 2005. Van Loon is currently working on a multimedia library in France and the home of the Danish Architecture Center in Copenhagen.

Photography by Frans Strous / © OMA

Reinier de Graaf
Reinier de Graaf joined OMA in 1996. He is responsible for building and masterplanning projects in Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, including the new G-Star Headquarters in Amsterdam (completed 2014), the 'Stadskantoor' (City Hall) under construction in Rotterdam, the Norra Tornen residential tower in Stockholm, and the Commonwealth Institute (under construction) in London. In 2002, he became director of AMO, the think tank of OMA, and produced The Image of Europe, an exhibition illustrating the history of the European Union. He has overseen AMO's increasing involvement in sustainability and energy planning, including Zeekracht: a strategic masterplan for the North Sea, the publication in 2010 of "Roadmap 2050: A Practical Guide to a Prosperous, Low-Carbon Europe" with the European Climate Foundation, and "The Energy Report," a global plan for 100 percent renewable energy by 2050, with the WWF. De Graaf has recently worked extensively in Moscow, overseeing OMA's proposal to design the masterplan for the Skolkovo Centre for Innovation, the "Russian Silicon Valley," and leading a consortium which proposed a development concept for the Moscow Agglomeration: an urban plan for Greater Moscow. He recently curated two exhibitions, On Hold at the British School in Rome in 2011 and the travelling exhibition Public Works: Architecture by Civil Servants (Venice Biennale, 2012; Berlin, 2013).

Photography by © Ekaterina Izmestieva / Strelka Institute

Shohei Shigematsu
Shohei Shigematsu joined OMA in 1998 and became a partner in 2008. He has led the OMA office in New York since 2006 and is responsible for OMA's operations in North America. Under his direction, the New York office has overseen the completion of Milstein Hall at Cornell University as well as the construction of the Quebec National Beaux Arts museum and the Faena Arts Center in Miami Beach. Sho has also led numerous direct collaborations with artists, including a pavilion in Cannes housing a seven screen system designed in collaboration with Kanye West, the Marina Abramovic Institute for the Preservation of Performance Art in upstate New York, and a studio renovation for artist Cai Guo Qiang in New York. Most recently, Sho led the winning competition designs for residential towers in Coconut Grove, the Miami Beach Convention Center, a mixed use project in Los Angeles, a tower in Sao Paulo and a new civic center masterplan in Bogota, Colombia. Shigematsu is a Design Critic for Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Photography by Blommers+Schumm / © OMA

Iyad Alsaka
Iyad Alsaka is partner in charge of projects in the Middle East and Africa. In 2008, he worked on OMA's acclaimed masterplan for Waterfront City in Dubai along with several other projects in the Gulf region. Alsaka joined OMA in 2007 from Dubai Holding, where he was director of design and development and responsible for dozens of projects since 2001. Alsaka was born in 1969 in Syria and studied architecture at the University of Aleppo.

Photography by Blommers+Schumm / © OMA

David Gianotten
David Gianotten is the Managing Partner-Architect of OMA. In this role he is responsible for the management, business strategy, and growth of the company worldwide. He also oversees design and construction of various projects, including the Taipei Performing Arts Centre, the Hanwha Galleria in Busan, the Taiyuan Industrial Heritage masterplan in China, and the Prince Plaza Building in Shenzhen. In his previous role as partner-in-charge of OMA's Hong Kong and Beijing offices and director of OMA Asia, David led the firm's large portfolio in the Asia Pacific region. He was responsible for the recently completed Shenzhen Stock Exchange headquarters, the final stages of the CCTV headquarters in Beijing, and OMA's conceptual masterplan for the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong. David joined OMA in 2008, launched OMA's Hong Kong office in 2009, and became partner at OMA in 2010. He studied architecture and construction technology at Eindhoven University of Technology, and before joining OMA was Principal Architect at SeARCH in the Netherlands.

Photography by Andrew Tang / © OMA

Chris van Duijn
Chris van Duijn joined OMA in 2000 and is based in Rotterdam. He has been involved in many of OMA's most renowned projects including Universal Studios in Los Angeles, the Prada stores in New York and Los Angeles (2001), Casa da Musica in Porto (2005), and CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012). In addition to large-scale and complex projects, he has worked on interiors and small-scale projects including private houses, product design, and temporary structures such as the Prada Transformer in Seoul (2009). Currently he is overseeing several projects under construction including the Fondazione Prada in Milan, the Parc des Expositions in Toulouse, a house in Rotterdam, and product development projects. Van Duijn holds a Master of Architecture from the Technical University of Delft.

Photography by Fred Ernst / © OMA

Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli
Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli joined OMA in 2007 and is based in Rotterdam. Pestellini's work and research at OMA/AMO has a focus on design, preservation, scenography, and curation. He currently leads the transformation design of the 16th century Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice, and developed Monditalia, a multi-disciplinary exhibition focused on Italy, at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale. Recently, Pestellini has directed the design of OMA's Tools for Life furniture collection for Knoll, led architectural competitions including the expansion of Bocconi University in Milan and the Tecnopole of Bologna, designed scenography for the Greek theater of Siracusa in Sicily, and co-curated Cronocaos, OMA's exhibition on preservation at the 2010 Venice Architectural Biennale. Since 2010, Pestellini has overseen a range of AMO projects with Prada, including stage design for fashion shows and directing special events and publications. He contributes to the curatorial development and exhibition design for Fondazione Prada, with projects such When Attitudes Become Form: 1969/2013 in Venice. He holds a Master of Architecture from the Politecnico di Milano.

Photography by Fred Ernst / © OMA

Jason Long
Jason Long joined OMA in 2003 and has been based in OMA New York since 2007. After contributing as Associate Editor of Content (Taschen 2004) and acting as a key member of AMO in Rotterdam, he served as project architect and project manager for many of OMA's cultural projects in the Americas including the Quebec National Beaux-Arts Museum, the Faena Arts Center in Miami Beach and the Marina Abramovic Institute in Hudson, New York. In addition, Long has overseen a number of residential projects in the US, including the Transbay 8 tower in San Francisco. He has a longstanding experience with strategic masterplanning, from his early involvement in AMO studies for Beijing Preservation and Shanghai Planning to the recent winning competition scheme for the Miami Beach Convention Center District. Long has been a Visiting Critic at Cornell University. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Vassar College, and a Master of Architecture from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design.

Photography by © OMA

Michael Kokora
Michael Kokora is a partner at OMA and is based in Hong Kong. In 2009 he established OMA Asia together with OMA partner David Gianotten. Within the Asia Pacific region, he is responsible for leading a large portion of OMA*AMO's portfolio and is developing projects in China, South East Asia, and Australia. He oversaw the design and construction of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2007 to the building's completion in 2013. Other projects have included: the conceptual masterplan for Hong Kong's West Kowloon Cultural District, an office tower in Kuala Lumpur, a residential project on the Peak in Hong Kong, a cultural resort in Indonesia, a broadcasting facility in Indonesia and AMO's revitalization projects in Jakarta. Michael is an Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong where he teaches in the Master of Architecture program. Prior to joining OMA, he worked for 10 years on a wide range of projects in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He holds a Master of Architecture degree from Yale University.

Photography by © OMA

Publications

Unveiling The Prada Foundation
Fondazione Prada, 2008
The Prada Foundation, based in Milan and started in 1993, documents its history and OMA's plans to renovate and expand the exhibition spaces through interventions in a compound of post-industrial buildings.

Al Manakh
Archis Foundation, 2007
A joint production of AMO, Moutamarat, and Archis, Al Manakh offers the first detailed analysis of the current urban condition in the Gulf and discusses the implications of the rapid development of this territory for the rest of the world.

The Gulf
Lars Müller Publishers, 2006
An accordian-style foldout booklet accompanying OMA/AMO's exhibition on the Gulf at the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale, investigating the feverish production of urban substance on sites where nomads roamed unmolested only half a century ago.

Content
Taschen, 2004
Content is a follow-up to SMLXL, an inventory of seven years of OMA's tireless labour. In many ways it is structured according to what its predecessor is not – dense, cheap, disposable. The relentless internal logic that propelled SMLXL is here counteracted by the incorporation of critical, external voices.

Domus D'Autore: Post-Occupancy
Domus, July 2006
AMO/OMA guest edit an issue of Domus, looking at four recent buildings not through our eyes but through the broader media and cultural context which these projects entered into, and through the intimate and critical experiences of their users.

Junkspace
Quodlibet, 2006
Junkspace is the new flamboyant, flexible, forgettable face of architecture, rendered by Rem Koolhaas in a visceral and rampantly analytical essay.

Wired
Condé Nast, June 2003
AMO and Rem Koolhaas guest-edit an issue of the groundbreaking tech magazine, Wired, presenting an atlas of "30 Spaces for the 21st Century" and articles on emerging geopolitical and technological domains by Mark Leonard, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Bruno Latour, Beatrice Colomina among others. The issue also includes Koolhaas's reconsideration of New York, 25 years after Delirious New York.

Project on the City I: Great Leap Forward
Taschen, 2002
A study by OMA and the Harvard Graduate School of Design on the Pearl River Delta, an area of China undergoing a maelstrom of modernization and set to become a megalopolis of 36 million inhabitants by 2020.

Project on the City II: The Harvard Guide to Shopping
Taschen, 2001
Shopping is arguably the last remaining form of public activity. The Harvard Guide to Shopping, made by the Harvard Graduate School of Design and OMA, explores the spaces, people, techniques, ideologies, and inventions by which shopping has so dramatically refashioned the city at the turn of the century.

Projects for Prada: Part 1
Fondazione Prada, 2001
Research undertaken by OMA/AMO into the condition and possibilities for Prada as they conceived new epicentre stores in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Mutations
Actar, 2001
Mutations, a joint project of Rem Koolhaas/OMA and the Harvard Project on the City, explores the unstable urban conditions around the world at the turn of the 21st century, a tipping point at which the world's city-dwellers began to outnumber those in rural areas.

OMA 30: 30 Colours
V+K Pub, 1999
A range of OMA's projects interpreted through their use of colour, together with OMA staff choosing "their colour". Rem Koolhaas suggests that "maybe colour could make a comeback" after its demise in the 90s, as "no longer just a thin layer of change, but something that genuinely alters perception."

SMLXL
Monacelli Press, 1995
A mammoth compendium of 20 years of OMA's projects, arranged in order of size, this book gives an insight into the restless, ingenuitive thinking of the office through an era when architecture became a mere bystander to the explosion of the market economy and globalization.

Delirious New York
Thames & Hudson, 1978 (original)
Rem Koolhaas's 'Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan' posits New York as the arena for the terminal stage of Western civilisation. Through the simultaneous explosion of human density and invasion of new technologies, Manhattan became, from 1850 on, a mythical laboratory for the invention and testing of a revolutionary lifestyle: the Culture of Congestion.