Urbanism after Innocence: Four Projects: The Reinvention of Geometry

Author(s): Rem Koolhaas

Source: Assemblage, No. 18 (Aug., 1992), pp. 82-113
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3171207 .
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2V

t~ Y`

Rem Koolhaa
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UrbanismAtg
Urban ism Af~tr, no o~'ce:
finocene
Proj-ect
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an architect KooaaslhaasGeoretry
is
study straight Classical Greek geometry- the of lines, regular
Th;eiRnvetion,.0f
The-Rinvention" fGeometry
by Sa'nford
Introducflon'by Sanford Kw,"inter
nter
Introduction, ,Khi

RemKoolhaasis an architect ClassicalGreekgeometry- the study of straightlinesieua

basedin Amsterdam. solids, and restrictedcurves- was in essence a timeless geom-
etry:everyreal'shapewas seen simply as the reflection or extru-
sion of an ideal, unchanging, and eternal form. The qualities of
a circle or squarewere constant, based on relationsbetween
magnitudes;changes,that is, transformationsand emergences,
were not consideredreal things at all, but imperfections,
degradations,perversionsof a noble, even divine and pregiven
rectitude.
These basic remainedalmost unchallenged until the
premiseswhen deep transformationsin the theory
nineteenth century,
.mathematical of time stried to give way. Such transformationsmanifested
;notonly in the new sciences of evolution and
them.sily's
thermodynamics but also throughout the urbanliteratureof
the latter half of the century,in Flaubert,Dickens, Engels,
Baudelaire.Massive and intenselyacceleratedindustrial,eco-
nomic, and technological innovationshad begun to transform
our experience of the materialand historicalworld:the once
imperceptiblyslow and stable rhythmsof historythat earlier
furnisheda kind of immobile ground for the more labile and
fluid human figurebegan to oscillate and varyin patternsof
shorterranid effecting an epochal reversalin
ii shbrter.duration, What once appearedas a fixed
s..
andaand-histprieaVexperience.
globalcorntinuumsubtending human temporalexperience
- the historico-rnatieriail assemblage,for example, known as
"the city"- began to multiply, mutate, and atomize so
quicklyand finely that it itself could no longerbe conceived as
anythingother than a turbulent, punctuated fluid.

83

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 assemblage 18

This new worldseemed to forceupon us an entirelynew - or fascinationthey may exerciseover intellectuals,planners,and

at least different- type of geometry,one whose roots may be architects,simplycannot do justice to the larger,if inchoate,
tracedwith precisionthroughRiemann,Lobachevsky,Bolyai, projectof OMA, its attempt to engage the contemporary
and Poincard.In certainwaysit may be said that in these forcesthat both carveup and produceour modernworld.
mathematiciansthere may be found a deep and precocious Indeed, OMA seems virtuallyalone within today'savant-garde
disquietudethat surreptitiouslyinformedso much of our own architecturalmilieu (with the possibleexception of Daniel
modernity:that the model of discrete,inelastic,and quantita- Libeskind)in venturinginto the space so shamefullyabdicated
tive reasonwas alreadyprecariouslyfounderingeven as its most by architectssince the progressivistheydayof the 1960s:the
prestigiousand rigorousmonuments - industrialcapitalism, spaceof the sociotechnicalformationof collectivesubjectivity;in
technoscientificrationalism,urbanization- werebeing as- other words,the politicsof metropolitan"delirium."
sembled.These were the geometriesthat firstbrokewith the
Koolhaasand OMA'strajectoryhas alwaysbeen deeplylinked
conveniencesand classicalpieties of homogeneous,linear,or
to the largerprocessesthat determine social formations-
isotropicspace;these were the protogeometriesof a new, still- economics and historicaltrends,aesthetic idiosyncrasyas ma-
prematureform of reason,one predicatedon acausality, terialfact ratherthan moralquandary,urbanismas a collection
deformability,creativediversification,and active variability. of continuallydiversifyingpractices.Yet, especiallylately,this
Though it took nearlyanothercenturyto reacha threshold, has not been at the expense of what could well be even more
the crisisof geometryand reasonfinallyarrived.Today, for the
firsttime, a numberof thinkersat the forefrontof speculative critical;that is, the minutiae of the public sphere- the cha-
otic fluctuationsof markets,governments,and libidinalecono-
philosophical,material,and culturalpracticehave begun sys- mies, the velleitiesof opinion, fashion,and taste.
tematicallyto extend their intuition of form to new levels,
indeed, to free their intuition from three-dimensionalex- To the question, What types of structureand form are possible
perience,and in a bold, strangeact of historicalrecovery,to today to sustaina maximum sensitivityto materialfluctua-
deroute the Greeksby returningto the still-untappedpowerof tions simultaneouslyat all scales,to sustaincontinualdynamic
the pre-Socraticworld:in a phrase,to recognizethat processes developmentovertime within an "envelope"(one of Kool-
and eventshaveshapesof theirown. haas'sfavoritewords,roughlyequivalentto what Althusser
used to call a conjoncture)that is fast becoming ludicrously
Nowhere in the architecturalworldtoday is this embraceof
narrow?OMA has venturedsome of the most daring- and
asymmetry,nonlinearity,and the miracleand undeniabilityof
indeterminateand spontaneouslyemergingmaterialqualities perhapsexhiliratinglydangerous- practicalspeculationsto be
- all manifestedin
found anywherein late-twentieth-centuryculture.But most
deep, multidimensionalgeometricform
- so importantof all, it has done this in a waythat is consonant
rigorouslytakingplace as in the workof Rem Koolhaas with the most compellingand fruitfulintellectualdevelop-
and the Office of MetropolitanArchitecture(OMA).'All of
ments of our age: the reinventionofgeometryand thegeometri-
Koolhaas'srecent workis evolved- ratherthan designed-
zation of the event.
within the hypermodern"event-space"of complex, sensitive,
dynamicalindeterminacyand change.2It would be easy, fartoo Thus it is only in the full-scaleurbanprojects(of which four
easy, to supportsuch an argumentpurelythrougha descriptive are here presentedin schematicform) that such a claim may
analysisof the morphologicaldata that pertainto the stunning properlybe put to test. Yet what coherentworldviewdo they
figuresand exotic massingso clearlyevident in everyone of his representand what characteristicsdo they share?The first,
recent buildingprojects:the Bibliothequede France,the Palais perhapsmost general,principleto note is that in OMA'spro-
de Congresd'Agadir,the ZeebruggeMaritimeTerminal,the posalsthe argumentalwaystakes precedentover the project.In
KarlsruheZentrum fur Kunstund Medientechnologie.But the other words,there is alwaysprimarilyan engine,be it discursive
novel, radicalfiguresof singlebuildingsor buildingsystems, or diagrammatic,nevera designthat is introducedinto the
howeveradvancedthese may be, and howeverpowerfulthe urbanmilieu to be reconfigured.It is nevera question of orga-

84

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 Koolhaas

nizing a space at the outset, but ratherof unleashing,trigger- ingestion) and is a contradiction- or an ill-statedproblem-
ing, or capturinglargerand alreadyexisting processes.3 that no philosophyor ideologyhas, or everwill, overcome.

Second is the adamantrefusalto represseither the material The remainingaxioms and principlesfollow from this latter
one.4Allof OMA'srecent urbanistworkis about the setting
fact, the economic reality,or the technologicalbrutalityof
into motion of dynamicself-regulatingand self-drivinginfor-
rampantinfrastructuralsystems,those vitalisticcirculatory
mationalecologies:The idea that non-organicsystemssuch as
systems of all modern civilizations,capitalistor otherwise.
These infrastructuralsystems- highways,railways,escalators, urbaneconomies, or complex public-workstructures,or even
small electronicnetworkslike those used in businessesor cul-
roads,ramps,elevators,stairs,mechanicaland ventilation
turalinstitutionsmight have a life of their own (indeed, even
systems- are generallyapproachedas capillaries,engravings,
or developmentalpathwaysor canalizationsto be inflected, the detailed mechanicsof the simplest single-celllife-forms)
still in our day escapes explanation,as if it were nothing less
redirected,or simplyfollowedlike the surfand mise-en-ddlire.
than a form of magic.Yet in the wordsof Rene Thom - and
Third, elements are gathered,classified,and distributednever these wordsmight just as well be the battle cryfor the archi-
as preformedspaces,objects, or functionsbut as statistical tecturalmethodologiesby which OMA almost single-handedly
intensities, pure potentialsor virtualities,morphicresonances is usheringus into the 1990sand into the centurybeyond -
as variabledensities of space-time,activity,or action. The "Isnot all magic, to the extent that it is successful,geometry?"5
idea is literallyto program,like a dramaturgeor film director,
all the pathwaysand accumulationsof information,recalling Notes
Cagney'svirtuosomicrogesturesor Minelli'ssaturatedcin- 1. Intimations of these develop- to the waves"(Rem Koolhaasin
ematic fields. In these firstthree generalaxioms there may be ments, in less systematic form, have ZONE 1/2, The ContemporaryCity,
discerneda veryclearorientationtowardevolutionary,time- certainlyappearedin some recent ed. Michel Feher and Sanford
workof Peter Eisenman, Bernard Kwinter [New York:Zone Books,
based processes,dynamicalgeometricstructurations,not struc- Tschumi, Liz Diller and Ricardo 1986], 448).
tures per se, but formsthat follow and fill the wakeof concrete Scofidio, and Hani Rashidand Lise 4. The present article is a prole-
yet unpredeterminableevents. Anne Couture.
gomenon to a more sustained and
2. Koolhaas,with reason I believe, detailed analysisof OMA's workto
The fourthaxiom has to do with a completelyunneurotic has consistently and categorically appearin the pages of this journal.
belief in the possiblefreedomsthat still lie unconfronted rejected the pseudo-concept of a 5. RendThom, StructuralStability
within the type of systemsthat common wisdom continues to "post-"modernism.
and Morphogenesis(RedwoodCity:
referto as the "artificial."Though the ethico-politicalground 3. "[Manhattan's]architecture Addison-Wesley, 1972).
here may seem shaky,many of OMA'smost tenable and per- relates to the GroBstadtlike a surfer
suasiveconvictionson the subject are not. This is because
instead of designingartificialenvironments,it deploysrichly
imbricatedsystemsof interactingelements that set in motion
ratherartificialecologiesthat, in turn, take on a genuine self-
organizinglife of their own. The common mistakeis to miss
the organicismand autopoesisof OMA'sapproachand to
attacksimplisticallyboth the mechanisticsubstratumout of
which its fluid, metabolic systemsare made, as well as the
unarguablyunjust, even nefariouseconomic and social pro-
cesses off of which they shamelesslyfeed. This is true, of
course,of all life-formsin all states of nature (naturesustains
its formsonly throughthe ongoing violence of captureand

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 I ments indid id, is
iat i loca ifs
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 Koolhaas

Melun-Senart,1987
The site of Melun-S6nart- the last Parisianville nouvelle- is too beautiful for us
to imagine the constructionof a new city there with innocence, optimism, or impu-
nity. The spaciousnessof the landscape,the beauty of the forests,and the serenity
of the farmsform an overwhelmingpresencepotentiallyat odds with any processof
development.
It requiresa second innocence to believe, at the end of the twentieth century,that
urbandevelopment- the built domain- can be predictedand controlledwith
reason.We have seen too many architectsof "vision"fail, to dreamof a contempo-
raryaddition to this chimericalarmy.
If the built, le plein, is now uncontrollable,subjectto political,financial,and cul-
turalforcesin a perpetualstate of flux, the same is not true of the void, wherearchi-
tecturalcertitudesare still convincing.Thus this scheme is as much a discourseon
what should not happen at Melun-S6nartas on what should.
The essence of this projectis a system of voids- in bands- that markthe site like
an intricatecipher,an urbanideogram.These voids must be protectedand main-
tained throughoutMelun-S6nart'sfuture development.
In some cases, the voids preservethe originallandscape,circumscribedto gatherup
a maximum beauty and the most remnantsof history.Other voids are createdon
both sides of the highwaysand trafficarteries,formingcontrolled,partiallybuilt
areas.Some zones have a programmaticjustification;they rationallydistributethe
most essential urban-collectivecomponents - universities,centers of government
and multinationalcorporations,hotels, culturalbuildings,sportsand leisure facili-
ties. These programmaticvoids organizethe majorcomponents of the ville nouvelle
and will give what is inevitablea qualityof the willed.

It is our thesis that if the demarcationof this complex of voids and bands succeeds,
insuringqualitiesof beauty, serenity,history,access, and services,the city of Melun-
S6nartalso succeeds, whateverits architecture.
The voids define an archipelagoof residualislandsof varyingsize, shape,location,
and perimeter:the interbands.Each island'sform is generatedby the surrounding
voids.
Each of these islandscan be developedalmost independentlyof the others, in keep-
ing with the specific demands of its site and program.The archipelagosystem in-
suresthat the islands'individualfreedomsas determinedby the voids ultimately
reinforcethe coherenceof the whole.

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 assemblage 18

Plandiagram:structureof events

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 Koolhaas

Urbanideogram on the site

Bandsand their designations:
connections, circulations,
programs,landscape,empty,
Bands borders

Interbands:archipelago of Circulationin the interbands

residual islands

Principalcirculations Recreationalfacilities

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 assemblage 18

Bandsand their event-structures

Band of connections
industrialpark
asphalt, parking
autostrade
greenery
nouvelleville

Band of circulation
secondaryroute
park/ "siegessociaux"alternation
autostrade
woodswith recreation,gardens,
billboards

Band of programs
street
existingelements:factory,forest,
farming,park
new elements:university,recreation,
garden
street

Band of landscape

Empty band
forest edge
pasture
buildingedge

Borderband
quay
water recreation
boulevard
lawn

Borderband
countryside
parkwith recreation
rivibre

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 Koolhaas

Aerialview

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 assemblage 18

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 Koolhaas

Lille, 1989
Paradoxically,at the end of the twentieth century,the expressionof the ambitions
of Prometheus- the desireto change the destiny of an entire city - continues to
be taboo.

The design of the projectfor Lille is based on the hypothesisof the experienceof a
Europechangedby the dual impact of a tunnel linkingBritainand the Continent
along with the extension of the high-speedTGV railwayline. If this hypothesisis
confirmed,the city of Lille- the center of gravityof the London-Brussels-Paris
trianglewith thirtymillion inhabitants- will suddenlybecome exceedinglyimpor-
tant as the receptorof a wide rangeof typicallymodern activities.

In the contemporaryworld,functionaldesignshave become abstractionsin the

sense that they are no longerlinked to a specific environmentor city, but float and
gravitatearoundthe place in an opportunisticmanner,offeringthe maximum num-
ber of relationships.
In Lille,the TGV line is projectedfor the site of old fortifications,now engulfedby a
proliferatingperiphery.A giganticfuturistprojectwill be built two paces from the
old quarter,resultingin an uncommon, hybridcondition that will permit the inser-
tion of activitiesconsideredto be peripheralinto the heart of the city.
In light of these conditions,it is difficult to take a quantum leap into an exotic,
imminent, radicalfuture.

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 assemblage 18

Futurecontext

'oTTEZIAH

E
S e0 L
V6VXELC

I LI. ,

|
if I

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 Koolhaas

TGVline superimposed on the

urban infrastructure

Preliminarycollage showing
programmaticsectors: 1. forum
of stations, 2. businesscenter,
3. "congrexpo,"4. Buttes de
Lille,5. reservation,6. scientific
and technical park,7. Gare Saint
Sauveur,8. fringes

Invisiblebasis:subterranean
foundation of the project on
the site, a solid mass of
infrastructurecomprisingthe
TGV,proliferatingperiphery,
and, between the two, parking
and access

Visiblebasis:the work of the

scriptwriter,the montage of
programs

41-F1,2 N~
OULEYANOUfl 17p
,IO

PROGRAuhgS

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 assemblage 18

Aerialview of site showing

infrastructuralemplacements

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 Koolhaas

Planof site

Plan of level +18m: parkingand

platformsof the TGVstation

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 assemblage 18

Piranesianspace: deliriumof
infrastructure

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 Koolhaas

Planof level +21.5m:gallery of

the TGVstation

Planof level +25.5m:

businessgallery

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 assemblage 18

View of model

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 Koolhaas

Sketch of infrastructureand effects

View of model

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 xx

- ---

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 Koolhaas

La Defense, 1991
How can one begin again in Europetoday?
We will considerLa Defense, the territoryof EPAD, as a strategicreservethat in-
surescontinued access to Parisbut that also representsa zone of privilegedexpan-
sion with a strongadaptivepotential, allowingthe city, the country,to attain
efficacy.In short,this territoryis a theaterof progress.
After the (unexpected) outcome of the firstdistrictof the area,the question of the
"prolongation"of the axis poses itself. The axis piercesthrougha constructionzone;
in its progression,it finds itself confrontedwith a dense and alreadyrich context.
We interpretedthe idea of extension as a gradualand progressivetransformationof
a system, of a seriesof systems,in the "system"of La Defense.
If beginning againat zero is presentlyunthinkable- the tabularasaa miragedefi-
nitely remote - the enduranceof "modernbuilding"is itself similarlycircum-
scribed.Not only is the modernbuilding constructedfrom materialspoorlyadapted
to eternity,but it is a descendent of an economic logic that accounts for twenty,
twenty-five,thirtyyearsmaximum, renderingit fundamentallytemporary.So if one
accepts that the existence of all modernbuildingsis precarious,a kind of tabularasa
may seem imminent enough. It suffices simplyto wait (admittedlya verydifficult
idea today) for the buildings'redundancyto impose itself, their reasonto be to ex-
pire.Then this renewal-effectcan inscribeitself in a classicaltraditionof construc-
tion, deconstruction,reconstruction.
To resolvea fundamentalparadox- the obligationfor society permanentlyto trans-
gressprecedentsand the simultaneousimpossibilityof beginning again- we used
these circumstancesto demonstratethat it is possibleto configurethe criticalmass
of urbanrenewalthrougha strategyof modern urbanismthat, beyond the utopia of
tabularasa,would translatethe most banal economic realities.
From the land as occupied today,we analyzedwhat would be the "availablesupple-
ments"by periodsof five yearsin orderto discovera giganticterritoryof potential
availability.We are proposing,then, that the system of La Ddfense be conceptually
understoodas a new field, which will be fed by the infrastructuresto come: auto
routes,TGV, and so on.
The frameor gridproposedhere is simultaneouslynotional and operational.With-
out subjugatingits extension to any absolute scheme of development,it would form
a filterthat would isolate those elements whose rightof survivalis not contested -
Nanterre,the university,the prefecture,the park- and, in anotherpart,suggest the
orientationsmost effective for an urbanfuture.
The omnipresenceof the framinggriddoes not imply a homogeneous density;the
system will, rather,regulatethe coexistence between masses and voids, full spaces
and hollow spaces.To reachits ultimate coherence,it gives a premonitoryidentity to
the fragmentsnow isolated.
Aroundthe "injections"of infrastructure,the gridcan accommodateitself to a vari-
ety of intensifications.The existing axis becomes an incident in the frame;specific
fusions would put "historical"fragmentsin context; the present La Ddfense would
dissolve.

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 assemblage 18

Existingsite

MetropolitanParis:1. territory
of EPAD,2. Boisde Boulogne,
de Gaulle,
3. Roissy-Charles
4. EuroDisney,5. centre ville

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 Koolhaas

Processof liberation:erasure of
the site over thirty years
Processof reoccupation

is

Pat-1
t40110

lo

t1262

-4c2 30c

r
',I
I
O o
.i

o
o
I

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 assemblage 18

Reoccupationscenario 1:
axe royale

- I-UJLJLJLJL
001 0 L []WE
- JL]L[]
I DI[
-1000
]OOOCa

%"ax " w o m tt
o It
iot,

;%E]%[
f %x F] " no

FD=
7_ ono
m

yl
"0 ,II,?
VILA• oILau IBF ,
nW0 "
Lk.

Scenario2: objects of density ,L ~ JI I

Tcn

-::-]IF7'-F-::.. - ElF2..I
-•• _af Msf

3: dispersion
Scenario
DO0000000

000 0000000

Scenario 3: dispersion Gridstudy:(from top to

bottom) typology of city
fabrics,grid derived from the
typologies of housing, grid
derived from the typologies
of mid-sizeoffice buildings,
grid derived from the
typologies of large office
buildings,the most favorable
lqrl? F li 1
grid for housing and offices.

q'f

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 Koolhaas

.....3..

II
i.46

Occupationof the grid:

avenues, streets, and alleys

View of model looking toward

existing LaDefense, with grid
exposed. The five existing
"eternal programs"remain
despite the grid (even if their
architecturesmay not): (from
foreground) prison, Universite
de Nanterre,train station, park,
Cite'Administrative

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1*4h
i KIRJN
14

. w

+4

SC as\i

.40
41.
A• ,JI•L.
x!IlLo
40% 6 M ••.p
46 ..
...4.
.. .
...\
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do, \.
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),

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sloop,

J* qL d

EXHBITIO
i,
"%',;

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 Koolhaas

Yokohama, 1992
From the outside, the Japanesecity seems a mere coexistence of randomarchitec-
tures in a field of maximum freedom.There is no planning,no public realm.But
Yokohamadeviatesfrom the Japanesenorm;throughits commitment to urban
design it could become a laboratoryfor the definition of a "Japanese"public realm.
The point of departurefor this project- maybe it should be called hypothesis-
was the unique conditions that we found on the site: the presenceof two markets
with a colossalnumber of parkingplaces,the access to the site by railroads,cars (on
the new highway),and ships, and the proximityof "MinatoMirai21," a tremendous
injection of density in an alreadycongested urbancondition. Together these factors
define a site of almost unlimited potential for supportingpublic life.

We have avoidedthe design of buildings (with their inevitablelimitationsand sepa-

rations).Continuous and formless,the projectengulfs the site like a kind of pro-
grammatic"lava,"three layersof public activitymanipulatedto supportthe largest
possiblenumber of events with the minimum amount of permanentdefinition.

Noticing that the "peakhours"of the marketfall in the earlymorning,our hypoth-

esis proposesa complementaryspectrumof events that would fill the twenty-four-
hour cycle with a montage of successiveand simultaneouspeaks.We exploit to the
maximum the location and its existing infrastructureto createa twenty-four-hour
"peak"comprisinga mosaic of heterogeneoustwenty-first-century"lives."
Some partsof the projectare used as roads,some as parkingplaces;minimal inter-
ventions "provoke"theaters,cinemas, dance halls, restaurants,churches,places for
sport,and other programs.The new givens of access, communication,artificiality,
and technologyare frozen in a momentaryconfiguration.

Coveringthe southeast cornerof the site, this programmatictapestryleaves an area

of the formerdocks intact. A seriesof ideal conditions exist there for an intense
housing development:openness and density and views of the sea.
Towardthe city is a site for a small "center"that, togetherwith the housing, will
give a degreeof three-dimensional"anchoring"to the site.

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 assemblage 18

/
2""

4Ir

:71

rw *% ,*-
\,

4C

• /
.:.*... ,

- \
-- . "
"".-f--• - ... ',

V.••nnj
-
,. . ,-

Plandiagram:structureof events

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 Koolhaas

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
0 1 2

*
*, ? , , ?
?,?.?

.
.......EDUCA

. . . . . .

....? ? ? ? ?

. :-. ::EDUCATION
.-:::-:: ??

. . .

? .?
.

..... .*. :... . .-EXHIBITION

.. . .
...!..
. .. . ..:.i.. :l. .-. .. ..: -.- !. . ..:.:...
. :.. *......

:..;:.:!;:: "M~ -

Montage of programs

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 2 13 4 5 t6 7 t8 t9 20 21 22 23 24

•..!.'........... •
........... .. . ..
,:.:.•
• :.
?;•: :!. ... .,. ...,. ;
. . . ....
.
.......,.
.-.......
.: . . . .. i. ... . .. . .•. . i . .r
. ..
...-
....
." . . -

i............ ....

. . .
. . .... -

Time/usediagram

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 assemblage 18

Views of the model

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 Koolhaas

113

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