REM KOOLHAAS:
WHY I WROTE
AND OTHER TEXTUAL
Cynthia Davidson:Thethemeofthis
issue is "Writing inArchitecture," not
onor aboutbutin,whichcouldmean
within, couldmeanwriting with,as in
in
writing pen and or
ink, writing in
an alternative candidateon a ballot,
thereby cancellingouttheofficially
sanctionedchoices. Thereare different
waysoflookingat writing in. You dida
lotofwriting beforeyoubeganmaking
architecture, andyouare stillwriting,
eveninthemakingofarchitecture. Do
you ever thinkofthe architectureyou
are makingas a kindofwriting?Are
youwriting inarchitecture ratherthan
making a textfora printedpage? What
do youthinkis therelationship between
writing and architecture?
RemKoolhaas:Ingeneralorforme?
Foryou. Why,forexample,didyou
writeDeliriousNew YorKi
Myfirstreasonforwriting in
architecturewas technicalorstrategic
inthatI sensed thatI wantedto be a
particularkindofarchitect,and I felt
thatat thetimetherewas no place for
thatkindofarchitect.So I wroteNew
York'oprovethatthatkindof
architectureand thereforethattypeof
architecthad existedbeforeand that
therewas stilla possiblerolefor
architectureconceivedon sucha level.
Inthatsense I wouldsay thatthe
writing ofNew Yorkbad one major
"aim": I wantedto construct- as a
-
writer a terrain whereI could
eventuallyworkas an architect.
Couldthisterrainonlybe constructed
through
writing?
DELIRIOUS NEW
STRATEGIES
Inwhatsense?
As opposedto drawing,
ormodeling,or
evenpainting.
I was tryingto deemphasizetheartistic
part beingan architect
of and describe
a rolethatwas muchmoreconcerned
withintellectual issues, whereother
interventions possibleand
were
therefore,bydefinition, couldnotbe
donethrough drawing.You asked ifour
projectsare writing inarchitecture.I
wouldsay thatalmostat thebeginning
ofeveryprojectthereis maybenot
writing buta definitioninwords- a
-
text a concept,ambition, ortheme
thatis putin words,and onlyat the
moment thatitis putinwordscan we
beginto proceed,to think about
architecture;thewordsunleashthe
design. Allofourprojects,orourbest
projectsormaybeourmostoriginal
projects,are firstdefinedinliterary
terms,whichthensuggestan entire
architecturalprogram.
Howare thoseliterary
termsmanifested
inthearchitecture?
Inthecase oftheBibliothèque
Nationaletherewas a suggestivelittle
sentenceabout"to imaginea building
wherethemostimportant partswould
be absences ofbuilding."
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YORK
Whatdoes thatmean,absences of
building?
Thatis exactlywhatwe asked
ourselves,whatdoes thismean? That
questioning made us thinkofan
enormoussolid buildinginwhichthere
wereexcavations,andthose
excavationswereexactlythepublic
rooms,so therefore theywereunbuiltin
termsofthemassivenessofthe
building.Itwas a kindofreversal.And
youcouldsay that,forinstance,for
Melun-Sénart itwas a similarquestion:
Whathappensifyouno longertryto
controlthecitythrough itsbuiltformbut
insteadthrough itsunbuiltparts,
through itsvoid?
So youhavea textthatprefacesthe
design. Do youbegindrawingto getyet
anothertext?
No,no. We can drawwhatever we want
and modelwhatever we want,butit's
onlywhenthereis a textlikeformulation
oftheproblemthatwe can reallystart.
The designis a demonstrationofa
idea.
thesisora questionora literary
Is thearchitectureitselfsomething
one
can read literally
as a text?
I thinksome ofthebestworkscan be
readas text.
Howwouldyouread it?
Forinstance,inthemonograph I'm
working on with Bruce Mau and Jennifer
Sigler,we are tryingto assertthe idea
thatthereis a genuineequivalence
betweentextand plans,thatplanscan
be readnotas compositions, butmore
and moreas partitions whereprograms
are simplyinscribedinproximities or
distancesor in relationshipsthatare
verysimilarto thewayinwhichyou
composea story.
Butmanypeopleare illiteratewhenit
comesto readingarchitecture.I'm
especially reading built
referring to a
building,buttherearen'tverymany
peoplewhocan readplanseither.
Maybeit'sa fearofreading;architects
createincredible verbalstructures of
If
mystification.you "read" thehorrible
thingstheyhavesaid and written about
space, forinstance,thisso-called
ofthe"others"comes as no
illiteracy
surprise.We excludedeverybody and
nowwe feelsuddenlylonely... we
haveno one to playwith. I thinka new
architecturalprojecthas to be
described- written - beforewe can
beginto complainaboutliteracy.We
firsthaveto proveourown.
Generally speaking,do youthinkthat
architecturemustnecessarilyhavea
relationshipto writing
orthatwriting
musthavea relationship to architecture
as definedbyin? Is thisprepositionin
relevantto a consideration
ofwriting
and architecture,
ratherthanwritingon
orabout,whichcouldbe reporting on or
criticismof?
IngeneralI wouldsayyes. Forme itis
verybrutalandprimitive, becauseforme
architecture
is an intellectualdiscipline
andformewriting is theprivileged
communication ofourintellectual
So
disciplines. writing is absolutely
withoutquestionnecessary.We abuse
thealibioftheotherness ofour
profession.But chemists writeabout
chemistiy,they don't pretend thatyou
cannotdescribethemeetingbetween
hydrogen and oxygen.Theydon'tsay
"you shouldhavebeenthere..."
So youthink thatinwriting architecture
one also has to cometo termswith
ideas ina different
way.
OMA - Madelon Vriesendorp,
Flagrant délit,fromDelirious New
York. Photo: Hectic Pictures.
You cannotwriteifyoudon'thave The montageoffilmandthemontageof New Yorkalwaysstruckme as an
ideas. I thinkthereis stilla verystrong architecture? architectural
act, as a workof
sectioninarchitecture thatsomehow architecture
in itself,notbecause ofits
hopesthattherecan be architecture Andwriting.Forall three,I wouldsay composition,notbecause oftitlesthat
without ideas. thatis thecrucialmoment. werebridges,butbecause thebook
itselfbecame a workofarchitecture by
Canwe considerDeliriousNew Yorka Aninterestingthinghas happenedin virtueofthewordsyouwrote,whatyou
workofarchitecture? writing. When we used to writebyhand hadto say. Theideas were
orbytypewriter,we wouldcutthe whichmadethebooka
architectural,
Yes, undoubtedly, he said eagerly.The pieces apartand collagethepieces of piece ofarchitecture.
structure ofthetextis very papertogether.Butnoweveryoneis
architectural. I talkaboutblocksin writingonthesescreensthat Rem Koolhaas is a founderofthe
analogy to New Yorkitself;each block continuouslyscrollout,and it'svery Officefor MetropolitanArchitecture
is subdividedinepisodesthathavea to makea collage because if
difficult in Rotterdam,whichhas builtthe
veryarchitectural relationship to each youwantto movethetextitsimply Dance Theaterat The Hague,
other:i.e., theymostly coexist. Each removesitand reinsertsitsomewhere housingin Fukuoka, Japan, and
component is extremely autonomous, else. There'snosense ofthepuzzle,no designedthemasterplan for the
nevertheless thereare complemen- sense ofphysicallyorevenvisuallyre- CentreInternationalD'Affairesin
tarities.Itswritten structure is piecing it. Lille, France. His bookDelirious
analogous to the urbanism it describes. New York (1978) was hisfirstmajor
Intermsofitslayout,itsfragmentation, ButI'mstilldoingitthatway. Let'ssay workin a career thathas included
itis also veryarchitectural. Each we do iton computer, we printit,and extensivecommenton thecondition
minichapter has a title,and one ofthe thenwe cutitup. I haveto see ithowit ofthe20th-century city.
mainreasonsis thatotherwise you fits. So inthatsense itis also almost
wouldhaveto spendinordinate visual.
amountsofwordsand timeand
whatever to createinteresting So whenyouare workingon a new
"bridges,"whichcorrespond to the do
project, youwriteitdown first?
now,forme,completely impossibleway
ofcreatingarchitectural "connections" Let'ssay I makea one-pagesynopsisof
ina building.Itis a bookwithout a whatitis about.
single "however," and that to me is
veryarchitectural. Ithas thesame logic Whichsoundslikeyouare indeed
as a city.Anyway, a crucialelementof a filmorperhapsa novel.
writing
thework- whether writing or
architecture - is montage.Ultimately, Yeah, it'strue. Onepage onwhatitis
I'mstillwriting scripts,whichis whatI about. Andthatis also becoming
didwhenI was 22. necessarybecause basicallythereare
so manypeople intheofficethateven
to disseminatean idea inthe"inner"
circleyoualmostneed thatkindof
medium,otherwise youcouldn'teven
begin to communicate withany
precision. That's I
why wouldsay that,
forinstance,DeliriousNew Yorkis
deliberatelynotaboutarchitecturebut
aboutthingsthatare muchmore
accessible.
us
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