Biography

November 17, 1944 • Rotterdam, Netherlands
Architect

Rem Koolhaas is considered by his many followers to be the coolest, hippest, and most cutting-edge architect on the planet. But, like all things cutting-edge, Koolhaas is difficult to classify. Since the late 1970s the Dutch designer has earned acclaim as an author, a theorist, an urban planner, a cultural researcher, and a professor at Harvard. And, of course, he has amassed an array of projects ranging in size from small—The Bordeaux House (1998)—to large—the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, China (begun 2004)—to extra large—the Euralille complex, located in Lille, France (1994). Although his projects are viewed as visionary by most, they are also unusual and frequently constructed using inexpensive, everyday materials. As a result they have been described as inspired, weird, or downright ugly. A prime example of Koolhaas's mixture of beautiful and bizarre is the Seattle Central Library, located in Washington and completed in 2004. Some consider it to be a revolutionary structure that taps into Seattle's urban energy; others call it a blight on the city skyline. Regardless, it is the largest U.S. Koolhaas project to date, and it marks the clear beginning of his American phase. And, despite his critics, there is no doubt that the breakthrough designer is changing the face of contemporary architecture. As U.S. architect Frank Gehry (1929–) told Belinda Luscombe of Time, "I would say he's the most comprehensive thinker in the profession today. He's the hope for the cities."