Keynote

The keynote speaker for Tasmeem Doha 2013 is Rem Koolhaas, acclaimed architect and winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Venue: HBKU Student Center Ballroom, Education City, Doha
Date: Sunday, 17 March 2013
Time: 7.30pm

Due to strong demand, attendees are advised to arrive by 7pm-7.15pm to secure their seat.

Biography of Rem Koolhaas

Rem Koolhaas founded OMA in 1975 together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp. He is recognized as one of the foremost architects working today, acclaimed not only for his pioneering buildings around the world, but also for his books, exhibitions, teaching and various projects in the realm of media, sociology, fashion and technology with OMA’s think tank, AMO.

Rem Koolhaas has received several international awards, including the Pritzker Architecture Prize (2000) and the RIBA Gold Medal (2004) and the Golden Lion for the 12th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice (2010). In 2005, Koolhaas received the Mies van der Rohe Award for the Netherlands Embassy, Berlin, and in 2001 Koolhaas was awarded the French Legion of Honour.

© OMA / Dominik Gigler

Recently completed OMA projects led by Koolhaas include the new headquarters for China Central Television (CCTV) – a tower reinvented as a loop – in Beijing; Milstein Hall – an extension of the college of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University; a new headquarters for Rothschild Bank in London; the Wyly Theatre, Dallas (2010); Prada Transformer, a rotating multi-use pavilion in Seoul (2009); Zeche Zollverein Historical Museum and masterplan in Essen (2006); Prada Epicenter in Los Angeles (2004); Seattle Central Library (2004); Netherlands Embassy in Berlin (2003); and the Prada Epicenter in New York (2001).

Koolhaas’ OMA projects currently under construction include the Shenzhen Stock Exchange – China’s equivalent of the NASDAQ exchange for high-tech industries; Taipei Performing Arts Center in Taiwan and De Rotterdam, the largest building in the Netherlands.

In the late 1990s, Koolhaas conceived AMO, a research unit that operates in areas beyond the boundaries of architecture and urbanism. Recent AMO projects include Roadmap 2050: a masterplan for a Europe-wide renewable energy grid; the development of an educational program for Strelka, a new architecture school in Moscow; consulting on the future of the European Union for the EU Reflection Group; designing catwalk shows for Prada and Miu Miu; guest editing an issue of Wired magazine as well as consulting on the future of Conde Nast magazines; proposing a “barcode” EU flag; and developing a curatorial masterplan for the Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

Koolhaas worked as a journalist and script writer before studying architecture, and writing has remained central to his architectural practice. While studying at Cornell in the US, Koolhaas wrote the seminal Delirious New York (1978) and simultaneously began producing groundbreaking projects and proposals with OMA. In 1995, S,M,L,XL summarized the wide-ranging work of OMA in a 1,200-page book that redefined architectural publishing. As director of the Project on the City research program at Harvard University, Koolhaas produced the books The Harvard Guide to Shopping (2001), an analysis of the role of retail and consumption in contemporary society and architecture, and Great Leap Forward (2002), a study of China’s Pearl River Delta; he also produced studies on Lagos, Roman architecture and communism. Other recent books by Koolhaas and OMA include Project Japan: Metabolism Talks (2011), on the Metabolist architecture movement in 1960s Japan; Content (2004), a review of OMA work and its role in contemporary culture; and Al Manakh I and II (2007 and 2010), in-depth studies of the rapid urbanization of the Gulf.

From October 2011 to February 2012, the Barbican Art Gallery in London hosted a major retrospective of the work of Koolhaas and OMA, following on from the exhibition “Content” which appeared at the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2003). Koolhaas and OMA have created the exhibitions “Dubai Next” at the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein (2008); “Image of Europe”, an effort to reassess the representation and perception of the European Union, in Brussels, Munich and Vienna (2004-6); “The Gulf”, exploring modernization and urbanization, at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2006); and “Expansion and Neglect” on the Hermitage Museum, at the Venice Biennale (2005).

Selected Projects

Wyly Theatre, Dallas
Prada Transformer, Seoul
Serpentine Gallery pavilion, London
Zeche Zollverein Historical Museum and masterplan in Essen
Seoul National University Museum of Art
Casa da Música, Porto
Prada Epicenter, Los Angeles
Seattle Central Library
Leeum Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul
Netherlands Embassy, Berlin
IIT Campus Center, Chicago

Teaching Positions

Strelka Institute, Moscow
Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design, Harvard University
Adjunct Professor of Architecture, Harvard University
Professor of Architecture, Rice University, Houston
Professor of Architecture, Technical University, Delft
Architectural Association, London
University of California Los Angeles, School of Architecture
Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, New York

Selected Honors / Awards

Golden Lion Award; Award for Lifetime Achievement, Appointed to EU Reflection Group by EU Council of Ministers, The European Council of Foreign Relations
Dutscher Architektur Preis Honorable Mention, Netherlands Embassy, Berlin, Germany
Praemium Imperiale, Japan
Membership Legion D’Honneur, Highest French Honour awarded by the French Government
Pritzker Architecture Prize

Selected Exhibitions

Cronocaos, 12th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice
OMA Book Machine, AA, London
Dubai Next, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein
OMA in Beijing, MoMA, New York
Image of Europe, Heldenplatz, Vienna
Image of Europe, Rond Point Schuman), Brussels
Image of Europe, Haus der Kunst, Munich
Content, Kunsthal, Rotterdam
Content, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin