We start on the first of three floors with a panoramic view stitched together from several photos. This will be immediately followed by detail of various areas on that floor.
Still on first level. Using the overview panoramic of that last post as a reference, we saw the rear of the seating area, here we are seeing the front of that very same seating - meaning the reverse angle.
Rem Koolhaas
Kunsthal
1992
Rotterdam, Nederland
Audience Seating Detail
Reverse Angle to Staircase Entry - Part 1
chairs are being arranged, apparently in dim light
Again on first level, we see one of the first uses by Rem Koolhaas of iconography. In this post we focus on the Smilie faces indicating Yes/No or Allowed/Forbitten etc. A far cry from Michael Rock's pictograms for Koolhaas at IIT. But one cannot help but notice the oddly similar building blocks of the pictogram when compared to this earlier idea:
KUNSTHAL: the circle filled in with simple mouth and eyes
IIT: circle only for face, but added stick like bodies used to build photographic-like images
A companion theme to the Smilies are these figures. I do not know what they are suppose to be, but they have a kind of outlaw style to them. When you or I find out what they are, this post will be updated.
Strange Things Uncovered While Researching Rem - #9
Rem Koolhaas on OMA/Koolhaas: "I like to do things that on first sight have a degree of simplicity but show their complexity in the way they are used or at second glance ... We are flamboyant conceptually, but not formally."
Frank Gehry on Rem Koolhaas:"He's capable of challenging everything. He's one of the great thinkers of our time."
Rem Koolhaas Builds
The world's most influential architectural mind finally has something to show for it.
By ARTHUR LUBOW
...
Koolhaas is at the forefront of what has become arguably the most exciting branch of culture. The wild critical and commercial success of Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao has made it clear that in architecture, unlike any other art form, the critics' favorites are also the public's favorites. People are flocking to Bilbao to see the building, not its contents; in Berlin, Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum doesn't even have any contents -- the exhibits have not yet been installed -- but the powerful structure is drawing unanticipated throngs. Suddenly, every city wants its own knockout piece of modern architecture. Koolhaas recalls competing for the commission for a new museum of modern art in Rome. "The director said, 'We need a building that does for Rome what the Guggenheim did for Bilbao,"' he recounts. "That is a staggering statement, because Rome doesn't need to be put on the map."
Koolhaas, despite his professed admiration for Gehry, is uncomfortable with buildings that, like the Guggenheim Bilbao, seduce by dazzling. He wants to arrive at beauty as a byproduct, not the goal, of the design process. He is suspicious of the wow factor. "I like to do things that on first sight have a degree of simplicity but show their complexity in the way they are used or at second glance," he says. Although he is not a pop-culture celebrity on the order of Gehry, within his profession Koolhaas is the more influential figure -- because he writes as provocatively as he designs and because his innovative style, unlike Gehry's metallic whorls, has not solidified into a one-of-a-kind signature. "We are flamboyant conceptually, but not formally," Koolhaas says. His firm is known for thoroughly researching and radically addressing a client's needs; this cerebral approach to design undergirds all of his work.
"His intellectual view is a lot more accessible to younger architects coming out," Gehry says. "I look at my work as personal. I'm not trying to create a school." Of Koolhaas's intellect, Gehry says: "He's capable of challenging everything. He's one of the great thinkers of our time." Adding immeasurably to Koolhaas's reputation as a writer is his proven prowess as a builder. His volleys are coming from within the fortress. "When he says that design is not necessary or it's a value not to have it -- if he said all of that and I thought he was an apologist for his own inadequacies, that would be a fascinating position for some mad charlatan," Gehry says. "But it's not about that, because he can do it.
EuraLille aka Euralille and Lille Grand Palais - Concepts
Two projects would be executed in the same city by early 1990s, by OMA teams headed by Rem Koolhaas. Both were also completed in the same year of 1994: EuraLille was a type of Urban Master Plan at the centre of the city; the other project was a type of event venue, named initially Lille Grand Palais - renamed later when corporate money addressed operating costs. Lille is located in Northern France - just over the border from Belgium, and not too far from the channel, and hence England. France's fourth largest city, wanted to re-establish itself as a "crossroad" for European travelers, both business and tourist.
EuraLille became Euralille, and aside from location, was anchored by two train stations: the historic Gare Lille Flandres, and the newly created Gare Lille Europe, the latter receiving high-powered and swift TGV trains.
A short distance away, the oval shaped event venue of Grand Palais.
Rem Koolhaas / OMA
EuraLille aka Euralille
1993 - 1994
Lille, France
EuraLille / Euralille
3D Models within Urban Context of Plan
Map with Train Station 'anchors' in relation to Euralille
Note 1 - Lille Grand Palais is the labeled bottom right,
oval-shaped structure
Courtesy Bonjour La France
Netherlands Architecture Institute, or NAI, informs us that the "... Grand Palais was initially designed as a building that acted as a bridge connecting the new city center with the old urban core." The implication being that this idea changed over time. We will explore this in bit more detail in later posts. Ahead are two pictures of the same 3D model that give you a visual overview of the idea behind the Lille Grand Palais.
Rem Koolhaas / OMA
Lille Grand Palais
1990 - 1994
Lille, France
Lille Grand Palais 3D Model
Note 2 - Roof on at one end; Roof off at reverse end
EuraLille aka Euralille and Lille Grand Palais - Overview of the actual Euralille
Koolhaas' Euralille Plan went from location and cluster-distribution arrangement to a refined version that incorporated the individual Architects designs for spaceholder buildings that took into account the desired density and function (seen in first post to Euralille). Next phase consisted of interiors with detailed renderings customised to the client(s) who bought into the overall Plan, which was in turn zoned for the centre of city.
Below is an attempt to capture an overview of the 'flesh-and-bone' Euralille from several different perspectives: the Guide drawing, the Aerial photograph, the Panoramic shots from across town, and finally from a vantage point on the edge of Matisse Park (known simply as 'Urban Park' in the original Plan).
Rem Koolhaas / OMA
EuraLille aka Euralille
1993 - 1994
Lille, France
Note 1 - this is a practical guide not an Architectural drawing:
five towers were planned but only three towers existed at the time(see also Note 2 below).
Note 2 - Again, at the time of this photo, the blue-roof Triangle des Gares had only completed 3 of the 5 towers planned,
but here you see the fourth slot available and room for the fifth.
EuraLille aka Euralille and Lille Grand Palais - Euralille Detail 1
This building, Triangle des Gares, eventually constructed five towers held together with a unifying roof. A portion of it was dedicated to shopping, and that segment was officially called Complexe Euralille relabeled '"Euralille Mall" by visitors. The rest of Triangle des Gares is used for hotel and apartment space, offices and a school.
Rem Koolhaas / OMA
EuraLille aka Euralille
1993 - 1994
Lille, France
Detail of Triangle des Gares mix-use building,
including 'Euralille Mall'
(Architect - Jean Nouvel)
Note 1 - On left, picture displays only three towers,
whereas on right, a picture taken later in time, displays four towers.
The plan provided for five towers (see also prior post).
Next station is within Euralille - Gare Lille Europe. This modern station is slightly below grade and extends to groundlevel and above. It was designed by Jean-Marie Duthilleul and completed in 1994. This is the second of two anchors of Centre Commercial Euralille - Tour Credit Lyonnais is above a portion of this station.
EuraLille aka Euralille and Lille Grand Palais - Grand Palais Detail 1
Again, Lille Grand Palais is distantly related to the Euralille project mostly by timing, but it was not directly connected to that projects zoning restrictions. Such events as hockey, indoor auto racing, skating, circuses etc, were all planned for Grand Palais.
As is typical of many of Koolhaas' public buildings, the structure changes as one looks at its various façades while traveling around the perimeter. Personally, I am not fond of this building, due primarily to its cladding and rough finish, but it had an impact on a certain style of Architecture found mostly in Northern Europe. We will explore some of the interior in later posts. You should also see some of the ideas he used in later buildings beginning to form in this structure.
Rem Koolhaas / OMA
Lille Grand Palais
1990 - 1994
Lille, France
Lille Grand Palais - Espace Congrès et espace Expositions - Exterior Detail
