The hall of the "Petrel Club" Konstantin Melnikov, in which Rem Koolhaas spoke, was filled to capacity, the air conditioners almost did not work, and the plane with the architect was delayed - but all this was worth listening to a lecture by the leading world architect, Pritzker Prize winner and founder of research bureau OMA / AMO, and then talk to him in an almost private setting
Rem Koolhaas's lecture was held at the Burevestnik club, built by the great Russian avant-garde artist Konstantin Melnikov. For the first time in a long time, this building was opened to the general public - before that there was a fitness center, and now it belongs to the Russian Avant-garde Foundation for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, which is going to open a Melnikov Museum in his house on Krivoarbatsky Lane. The premise for the lecture was not chosen by chance - Rem Koolhaas can undoubtedly be called the successor of the ideas of the Russian avant-garde, but another thing is curious - in 1916 Melnikov participated in the project of building a Moscow automobile plant, in short - AMO.
Opening the lecture, Rem Koolhaas said that Moscow is his favorite city since he first visited here. The architect focused the story on his latest projects, as well as research, to which he pays no less attention. Architecture, in his opinion, is "a combination of traditions and innovations, and all of it is subordinated to people." Koolhaas believes that today the status of architecture as a human activity is changing: because, on the one hand, it serves humanity, and on the other hand, to a private customer and investor - which is what its duality is manifested in. "In the era of market relations that exist now, architecture cannot be simple, boring, monotonous, as it used to be, it must reflect the pressure and pace of modern life that we are experiencing."
As for the modern stars of architecture, Koolhaas believes that with their buildings they "create the seeds of their own destruction" - because each new building deliberately denies the previous one and operates outside of tradition. Around the world, the public and intellectuals expect a lot from the so-called. stars are architects, but in fact, their projects are often devoid of ideas, new concepts, and represent only options for commercial proposals.
In one of his projects, Rem Koolhaas plays with the symbols of the European Union. Who can be inspired, he says, by today's symbol of the European Union? And in response, he comes up with his own multi-colored symbol, where each country has a specific color, denoting its unique contribution - so far, the architect has managed to use this striped symbol to paint the roof of one of the buildings in the center of Berlin.
With his latest project for Dubai, the Renaissance business and hotel complex, which his partner Rainier de Graaf talked about at the recent New Business Quarters conference, the architect wanted to bring seriousness to the environment of rather mediocre architecture and show the city a new architectural beginning based on laconicism and avant-garde tradition.
The most famous project of Koolhaas - the building of the Chinese Central Television, which is now being built in Beijing, the architect thought of as a counterattack after the events of September 11, because the Chinese project also connects skyscrapers. The building will house all the organizations and divisions working on television, and it will also be open to visitors who can watch how people work there and how programs are filmed. However, now the Chinese authorities have decided to divide the TV into a state TV, which will be in a different location, and a commercial one, something like the BBC, which will be in this building. However, despite this, the idea of democracy and modernity, as the architect says, remains the leading one in his project.
Koolhaas also spoke about his participation in the tender for Gazprom's headquarters in St. Petersburg. In his opinion, something like a gazpromophobia is beginning in the world, because the company's influence is growing strongly in many regions. As it was possible to understand from the speech, the architect does not particularly support the competition for a skyscraper in the historical part of the city and believes that his own project does not intrude so much on the environment. This project represents several skyscrapers of different heights, collected in one bundle. Initially, the architect imagined it partly of ice, of which, as he believes, there is a lot in St. Petersburg, but then he decided to make it out of blue glass, which is common in Russia.
As for research activities, the AMO bureau, whose name playfully echoes the main design bureau OMA, is studying various aspects of architectural activity, among which the key issue is the transformation of the role of the architect in the modern world and his role in the decision-making process on the project. Also in the bureau there is a department engaged in the creation of architectural forms close to simple geometric shapes - a triangle, a square, etc.
After the speech, Rem Koolhaas answered questions from the audience not from the rostrum on the microphone, but in a friendly way down the steps of the stage and gathered the most active audience around him. When asked about the best architectural institute, Rem answered paradoxically that education plays the least role in the development of an architect, more important is where he lives and what he sees every day. When asked how he thinks whether his buildings will be reconstructed in the future, he replied that they are so complex in construction that the restorers will need special documents and his own comments. “I’m afraid that when I die, no one will be able to do this. This is a big problem for me."
When asked about projects in Moscow, Koolhaas replied that so far he has no plans for the Russian capital. And when asked if he regretted becoming an architect, he replied that sometimes he thinks about it and perhaps if it were not for this profession, he would become a writer, which is not excluded now, and also probably in the future he will take some some political post."
