Rem Koolhaas, OMA + AMO

‘Source Books in Architecture No.14: Rem Koolhaas / OMA + AMO Spaces for Prada’ is the most recent volume in the ‘Source Books in Architecture’ series. Among the topics discussed in the book are the long-standing relationship with Prada and how the early objectives in that relationship have both maintained and shifted. An underlying theme to the conversations held with students and faculty of the Knowlton School community is the topic of architect-client relationships, their history, their problems, and how they have contributed to the discipline over time. Explicitly, a focus of the conversation is a number of projects that OMA has developed or completed with Prada, a large number of which are installation-scale environments that manifest in the form of runway shows and exhibitions. The challenge of such projects is to retain a commitment to the political and cultural agenda that OMA embeds in the larger and permanent buildings. Given the ephemerality and role of these environments as literal backgrounds to highlighted events, the projects are ideal scenarios in which to develop an architecture that lacks the permanence of buildings while still carrying potency and contributing to larger cultural discussions involving, for example, event, place, concept, product, staging, the crowd, lighting, and materiality.

‘Source Books in Architecture No.14’ contains project documentation from the OMA and Prada archives, transcripts from Koolhaas’ conversations with students at the Knowlton School at The Ohio State University, and commentary and critique from architects, critics, and theorists.