S, M, L, XL: Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large
S,M,L,XL presents a selection of the remarkable visionary design work produced by the Dutch firm Office for Metropolitan Architecture (O.M.A.) and its acclaimed founder, Rem Koolhaas, in its first twenty years, along with a variety of insightful, often poetic writings. The inventive collaboration between Koolhaas and designer Bruce Mau is a graphic overture that weaves together architectural projects, photos and sketches, diary excerpts, personal travelogues, fairy tales, and fables, as well...
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S,M,L,XL presents a selection of the remarkable visionary design work produced by the Dutch firm Office for Metropolitan Architecture (O.M.A.) and its acclaimed founder, Rem Koolhaas, in its first twenty years, along with a variety of insightful, often poetic writings. The inventive collaboration between Koolhaas and designer Bruce Mau is a graphic overture that weaves together architectural projects, photos and sketches, diary excerpts, personal travelogues, fairy tales, and fables, as well as critical essays on contemporary architecture and society.The book's title is also its framework: projects and essays are arranged according to scale. While Small and Medium address issues ranging from the domestic to the public, Large focuses on what Koolhaas calls "the architecture of Bigness." Extra-Large features projects at the urban scale, along with the important essay "What Ever Happened to Urbanism?" and other studies of the contemporary city. Running throughout the book is a "dictionary" of an adventurous new Koolhaasian language — definitions, commentaries, and quotes from hundreds of literary, cultural, artistic, and architectural sources.Martin FillerPerhaps afraid that readers will be daunted from advancing into the depths of this silver-covered brick of a book, Mr. Koolhaas runs a 'dictionary' in the margins throughout. . . By turns portentous and sophomoric, this self-conscious device seems more suited to a high school yearbook. . . . With its high price, lavish production values and chic juxtapositions of violent news photos, pornographic outtakes, cheap advertisements and fine-art reproductions, [S, M, L, XL] is closer in spirit to the deluxe boxed CD sets of aging 60's rock stars. -- New York Times Book Review
OMA ChartsIntroductionAcknowledgmentsProject CreditsExodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture: AA Final Project, 19722Delirious New York: Appendix, 197822Less is More: Installation for the 1986 Milan Triennale, Italy, 198546The House That Made Mies: Theory, 199362Dutch Section: House for Two Friends, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 198864[actual symbol not reproducible]13,000 Points: Nexus World Housing, Fukuoka, Japan, 199180Learning Japanese: Poem, 199388Worth a Detour: Renovation of Hotel Furka Blick, Switzerland, 1991126Obstacles: Villa Dall'Ava, St. Cloud, Paris, France, 1991130Only 90[degree], Please: Video Bus Stop, Groningen, Netherlands, 1991194Imagining Nothingness: Text, 1985198The Terrifying Beauty of the Twentieth Century: Text, 1985204Field Trip: (A)A Memoir: The Berlin Wall as Architecture, 1993212Revision: Renovation of a Panopticon Prison, Arnhem, Netherlands, 1979-81234Shipwrecked: Housing Kochstrasse/Friedrichstrasse, Berlin, Germany, 1980254Final Push: Extension of the Dutch Parliament, The Hague, Netherlands, 1978278Cadavre Exquis: Netherlands Dance Theater, The Hague, Netherlands, 1987304Typical Plan: Meditation, 1993; Morgan Bank, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1985334Byzantium: Housing, Offices, Shops, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1991; Cartoon, 1994354Globalization: Text, 1993362Vanishing Act: Biocenter, University of Frankfurt, Germany, 1988370Islam After Einstein: Hotel and Convention Center, Agadir, Morocco, 1990374New Rotterdam: Architecture Museum, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 1988; Museum Park, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 1994; Kunsthal I, Rotterdam, Netherlads, 1987-88400Life in the Box?: Kunsthal II, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 1992430Neue Sachlichkeit: Project for an Office City, Frankfurt Airport, Germany, 1989474Bigness, or the problem of Large: Manifesto, 1994494Soft Substance, Harsh Town: Boompjes TowerSlab, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 1979-82518Indeterminate Specificity: The Hague City Hall, Netherlands, 1986544Dirty Realism: A Mini-Farce, 1993570Working Babel: Sea Terminal, Zeebrugge, Belgium, 1989578Bifurcation: Effects of Structure, 1993600Strategy of the Void: Tres Grande Bibliotheque, Paris, France, 1989602Weird Science: Excerpts from a Diary, 1989604Last Apples: Speculations on Structure and Services, 1993; From the notebook of Cecil Balmond, 1992662Darwinian Arena: Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany, 1989-92686Passion Play: Epitaph, 1992762Organization of Appearances: Congrexpo (Lille Grand Palais), Lille, France, 1994764Palace of the Soviets: Bedtime Story, 1994822The White Sheet: Dream, 1981828Atlanta: Journalism, 1987/1994832Las Vegas of the Welfare State: Bijlmermeer Redevelopment, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1986860Unlearning Holland: Point City/South City, Project for Redesigning Holland, 1993888Congestion Without Matter: Parc de la Villette, Paris, France, 1982894Elegy for the Vacant Lot: Text, 1985936Their New Sobriety: Exposition Universelle 1989, Paris, France, 1983940What Ever Happened to Urbanism?: Text, 1994958Surrender: Ville Nouvelle Melun-Senart, France, 1987972Dolphins: Transportation Exchange Centers for Benelux, 1989, 1991990Singapore Songlines: Thirty Years of Tabula Rasa: Reconstruction, 19951008Tabula Rasa Revisited: Mission Grand Axe, La Defense, Paris, France, 19911090Side Show: Zac Danton Office Tower, La Defense, Paris, France, 1991-931134Quantum Leap: Euralille: Centre International d'Affaires, Lille, France, 19941156Programmatic Lava: Urban Design Forum, Yokohama, Japan, 19921210The Generic City: Guide, 19941238Chronology1270Dictionary References1284Image Credits1300P.S. Unraveling: 2 Bibliotheques Jussieu, Paris, France, 19931303
\ ArtforumA brick of a book....This book tells a tale, a great contemporary architectural odyssey- the story of how this architect came to think big.\ \ \ \ \ Martin FillerPerhaps afraid that readers will be daunted from advancing into the depths of this silver-covered brick of a book, Mr. Koolhaas runs a 'dictionary' in the margins throughout. . . By turns portentous and sophomoric, this self-conscious device seems more suited to a high school yearbook. . . . With its high price, lavish production values and chic juxtapositions of violent news photos, pornographic outtakes, cheap advertisements and fine-art reproductions, [S, M, L, XL] is closer in spirit to the deluxe boxed CD sets of aging 60's rock stars. -- New York Times Book Review\ \ \ Washington PostSerious books cities tend to come in batches every couple of years. Because of its sheer exuberance, brilliance, and artistry, S,M,L,XL tops the list. Koolhaas is that rare architect who writes trenchantly and with style. A seductive collage of typology, words, and images.\ \ \ \ \ Publishers WeeklyKoolhaas, Dutch architect, author (Delirious New York) and cult figure, wants architecture to be "a chaotic adventure," and this massive tome certainly is. Created with Toronto-based designer Mau, it's a huge collage splicing freewheeling essays, diary excerpts, photographs, architectural plans, sketches, cartoons and surreal montages of images. There's also a running glossary of Zen-like definitions, plus fables and parables intended to shake modern architects out of conventional thinking and to dispel urban despair. In one essay, Koolhaas admires Japan's metabolist movement, which fuses organic, scientific, mechanistic and romantic vocabularies. That approach seems compatible with his own innovative, eclectic vision as head of the Dutch firm Office of Metropolitan Architecture (O.M.A.), whose houses, villas, office towers, libraries, colleges, cultural complexes and other projects are showcased here. While some readers may be mystified by a nonlinear hodgepodge, architects, planners and designers will find this frequently outrageous assemblage a provocative repository of ideas. Author tour. (Mar.)\ \ \ \ \ Herbert MuschampS,M,L,XL was the most important architecture book of the decade. \ — Artforum\ \
