Rem Koolhaas - OMA, Rotterdam
The exhibition entitled 'Dutchtown' shows the future city centre of Almere, designed under the direction of Rem Koolhaas with Floris Alkemade, Office for Metropolitan Architecture. The first buildings of Almere are just 25 years old. The city was built on a polder, and what was missing was an urban context. A few years ago it was therefore decided to fulfil the long awaited wish for a real city centre by designing OMA. As early as 1994, the Almere municipality had set out all its ideas in a thesis paper 'Almere Center 2005' and launched a limited competition to design the new centre. The task was to translate the theses set out in the paper into an urban vision. The invited offices were: Gert Urhahn, Bureau Quadrat, Teun Koolhaas and OMA. In the meantime, the design for the Almere Centre has been developed to such an extent that several architects have been entrusted with the task of elaborating individual parts of the master plan in detail, including renowned offices such as Alsop &Störmer, de Architekten Cie, Claus en Claus and the Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima, whom we will present in late autumn with a solo exhibition in Aedes East.
At the centre of the presentation in Aedes East is a long glass table with 50 working and design models from the OMA office. A video screen provides a view into the large presentation model, so that visitors can take a virtual walk through the future Almere. The exhibition illustrates the development process of the city centre, in which OMA, Almere City Council and the development offices MAB and Blauwhoed were involved as partners. The participants - among them the responsible Almere City Councilor, Rem Koolhaas and a developer - are presented on five monitors. Characteristic individual projects are illustrated by pictures and plans: the PopCenter, the cinema and an underground car park. The administration of Almere enthusiastically describes the new centre as a place of concentration and centrality. This was also the reason for choosing a traditional interpretation of the city centre as a place of geographical and programmatic centre. Moreover, such a place always intends to give the city a characteristic logo that distinguishes it from all other Dutch city centres. This also reveals the urban design concept of OMA: a condensed overlapping of functions in the city centre gives Almere a mega-structure in which transparency is intended to emphasise cohesion. Almere aims to become complete and get everything it currently lacks: a commercial centre, a convivial public square and even a historic Belgian castle.
Speaking at the opening:
Kristin Feireiss Berlin/Rotterdam
Dr. Nikolas van Dam Ambassador of the Netherlands
Dr. Maarten Asscher Director Department of Art, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
Rem Koolhaas Rotterdam
Project Management: Ulla Giesler
