OMA has a special attitude to books: the founder of the bureau, Rem Koolhaas, and his colleagues try to translate all their research into printed form (sometimes using a simple office printer). In 2010, the workshop even organized an exhibition, in which a multivolume collection of 40,000 pages became the central exhibit - so much has accumulated over more than thirty years of the bureau's existence. However, other people's texts interest them no less. The studio has its own library, and sometimes architects show on Instagram what is on the shelves there. We have selected ten of the most interesting and non-standard books from those that OMA employees post on the official account.
(each of the Instagram posts below is a gallery where several books are collected at once)
Edited by Stuart Brand
"Space Colonies" ("Book of Coevolution", published in the "Catalog of the Whole Earth")
Penquin, 1977
/ Edited by Stewart BrandSpace Colonies (A CoEvolution Book published by the Whole Earth Catalog)
This is not quite a book in the classical sense, but one of the numbers of the cult “Catalog of the Whole Earth”. Steve Jobs called it "the bible of his generation" and compared the publication to "Google paperback". The magazine was published in 1968-1972 and was a practical guide in the genre "everything about everything" for those who live in a commune autonomous from the state; at that moment it was a significant countercultural movement. Behind this was a large-scale mission - to give people the opportunity to acquire new skills and knowledge and thereby expand their rights and opportunities. It is from such ideas and publications that, among other things, the modern "green" movement has grown, in more detail Archi.ru wrote about this here. The "Catalog" contained information about various goods - be it tents, personal computers or garden tools, as well as their cost and contacts of sellers - articles, advice, book reviews. The issue, which is housed in the OMA Library, is dedicated to space colonies; the idea of creating such settlements was extremely popular in the 1970s. One of the authors of the space colonization project was the American physicist Gerard O'Neill. It was to him that the editor-in-chief and founder of the "Catalog of the Whole Earth" Stuart Brand gave the opportunity to speak out on the pages of the magazine. Biologists, astronauts, astrophysicists, as well as architects - the heroes of this countercultural movement - Buckminster Fuller and Paolo Soleri lead the "polemic" with O'Neill.
Holly Jean Buck
"After Geoengineering: Climate Tragedy, Remediation and Recovery"
Verso, 2019
/ Holly Jean Buck"After Geoengineering: Climate Tragedy, Repair, and Restoration"
Against the backdrop of a progressive ecological disaster, this book is becoming more and more relevant. Is it possible to restore the climate and learn how to control it? Holly Jean Buck, at the Institute for the Environment and Sustainable Development at the University of California, Los Angeles, says yes. But innovative technologies alone will not be enough: transformations in the social and economic spheres will also be required. In her monograph, Holly Jean Buck describes tools for solving environmental problems and offers dozens of possible scenarios for the future.
Martin McCauley
"Khrushchev and the development of agriculture in the USSR"
The Macmillan Press, Ltd., 1976
/ Martin McCauley"Khrushchev and the development of Soviet Agriculture"
British historian Martin McCauley studied the USSR and the countries of the socialist camp all his life. In 1969, he even graduated from the Timiryazev Moscow Agricultural Academy, and seven years after receiving his diploma, he wrote a 196-page monograph on the development of virgin lands in 1953-1964. Fragments of some chapters can be found here.
Christian Delhi, Andrea Grolimund
"Kazuo Shinohara: 3 Houses"
Quart Verlag, 2019
/ Christian Dehli, Andrea GrolimundKazuo Shinohara: 3 houses
One of the few "profile" books in the OMA collection is devoted to three key buildings of one of the most influential Japanese architects of the 20th century - Kazuo Shinohara. Among his students are Toyo Ito and Kazuyo Sejima. The book deals with the House in White (1966), The House in Uehara (1976), The House in Yokohama (1984); each building belongs to one of the completed "styles" in which the architect worked. The album contains sketches, drawings and archival photographs of buildings.
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Richard Sennett
“Construction and Housing. Ethics for the city"
Allen Lane, 2018
/ Richard Sennett“Building and Dwelling. Ethics for the city"
Sociologist and urbanist Richard Sennett is already well known to the Russian reader: four of his books have been translated into Russian. “Construction and Housing. Ethics for the City”, one of Sennett's last works, has not yet been published in Russia. In it, an American professor discovers the relationship between the planning and development of cities and the quality of life of their inhabitants. The author opposes the standardization of megacities and "too far-sighted" urban planning: it is foolish to hope that people will use the space exactly as it was intended "from above", especially in the long term.
Edited by Kirill Svetlyakov
“The Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val. Art of the XX century. Guide"
Paulsen, 2015
/ Edited by Kirill Svetlyakov“The State Tretyakov Gallery At Krymsky Val. A Guide to Russian Art of the 20th Century"
This is the first guide to the 20th century exposition of the State Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val. The book was published in Russian in 2014, and in 2015 it was translated into English. In addition to photographs and reproductions, the album contains comments by art critics (mainly employees of the Tretyakov Gallery) and the artists themselves, as well as the layout of the exhibits in the halls.
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Zeynep Tyufekchi
Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Vulnerability of Online Protests
Yale University Press, 2017
/ Zeynep TufekciTwitter and tear gas: The power and fragility of networked protest
This is a book about the peculiarities of the protests taking place in the era of the Internet, social networks and instant messengers. TED Talks 'regular' techno-sociologist Zeynep Tyufekci explains how Twitter and Facebook influence the formation of the protest movement, describes the strengths and weaknesses of network actions and explains how they fundamentally differ from the manifestations of the pre-Internet era. A copy of the book in pdf format is available for free download on the official website of the publication.
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Edited by Francesca Bray, Peter Koklanis, Edda Fields-Black, Dagmar Schaefer
"Rice: Global Networks and New Stories"
Cambridge University Press, 2015
/ Edited by Francesca Bray, Peter A. Coclanis, Edda L. Fields-Black, Dagmar Schaefer"Rice: global networks and new histories"
Rice is not just a food product, but the engine of the world economy and capitalism, and for certain regions it is also a conductor of cultures. The authors of the research "Rice: Global Networks and New Stories" offer to be convinced of this. The book contains 15 chapters - each devoted to one of the countries of Asia, Africa, North or South America. Using the example of the regions under consideration, experts explain how rice cultivation influenced the economic and political situation and social relations.
Donna Haraway
"Images of primates: gender, race and nature in the world of modern science"
Routledge, 1990
/ Donna Haraway"Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science"
Donna Haraway, one of the founders of cyberfeminism, devotes the reader to the history of the development of primatology and along the way talks about the problems faced by women scientists and how the personal interests and prejudices of "white men" have distorted the scientific picture of the world. In the ideology of primate science, according to Haraway, racism, sexism and colonialism rule.
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Philip Moiser, Ansgar Oswald, Marina Demidovets
“Architecture for the Russian space program. From constructivism to cosmonautics: plans, projects, buildings"
Dom Publishers, 2013
/ Philipp Meuser, Ansgar Oswald, Maryna Demydovets“Architektur für die russische Raumfahrt. Vom Konstruktivismus zur Kosmonautik: Pläne, Projekte und Bauten"
In this 412-page album, a German-Russian team led by architect Philip Moiser, founder of DOM Publishers, explains how space travel and simply dreams of conquering airless space influenced Soviet architecture in the 20th century. The collection includes photographs of buildings of various architectural styles - from constructivism to Soviet modernism, as well as photographs of interiors of spaceships, mosaics, and bas-reliefs. An important place in the album is occupied by the memories of witnesses of the "space age": the former chief architect of the Moscow Region Star City Viktor Ass and designer Galina Balashova, who created the interiors of many orbital stations and spacecraft, tell about their work.
