At the Architecture Biennale in Venice (29th August – 21st November 2010) the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement will be awarded to the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas (Rotterdam, °1944).
The jury states: “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.”
In 1975 Rem Koolhaas – together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp – founded OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture). OMA gained worldwide fame with daring projects. Koolhaas was mentioned in Time in 2008 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
The most important works by Koolhaas and OMA include:
the Netherlands Dance Theatre at The Hague
the Kunsthal in Rotterdam
the Grand Palais and EuroLille Masterplan, both in Lille, France
Seattle Public Library
the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago
the Dutch embassy in Berlin
the Headquarters for Chinese Central Television in Beijing (picture).
You can read an older article from The Low Countries Yearbook about Koolhaas here.
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