Office for Metropolitan Architecture
| OMA | |
|---|---|
| Key architects | Rem Koolhaas |
| Partners | Ellen van Loon, Reinier de Graaf, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, David Gianotten |
| Founded | 1975 |
| Location | Rotterdam |
| Buildings | Seattle Public Library, Villa Dall'Ava, Casa da Música, Netherlands Dance Theatre, McCormick Tribune Campus Center, China Central TV Headquarters, Guggenheim Museum Las Vegas, Prada New York |
| Design | European Flag Proposal |
| Website | |
| www |
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The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is a Dutch architectural firm based in Rotterdam, founded in 1975 by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and Greek architect Elia Zenghelis, along with Madelon Vriesendorp and Zoe Zenghelis.
Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis started working together in the early 1970s at the Architectural Association, the London-based architecture school, where Koolhaas was a student and Zenghelis an instructor. Their first major project was the utopian/dystopian project Exodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture (1972). This project proposed a linear structure, cutting through London like a knife. Other projects included City of the Captive Globe (1974), Hotel Sphinx (1975), New Welfare Island/Welfare Palace Hotel (1975–76), Roosevelt Island Redevelopment (1975), all "paper" projects that were not (intended to be) built, and all located in Manhattan, the subject of Rem Koolhaas’ famous book Delirious New York, A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan (1975).
The founding of OMA coincided with the firm's entry in the architectural design competition for a new Dutch parliament building in The Hague in 1978, with Zaha Hadid. OMA was one of the first-prize winners (among some 10 others), and the project was widely discussed and published. The commission, however, was given to an architect who did not participate in the competition. The entry for the Dutch parliament competition was the first of a series of controversial and successful international competition entries by OMA in the 1980s that were not built by OMA.
OMA's first major commissions were The Netherlands Dance Theatre (1981) in The Hague and IJ-Plein Urban planning (1981–1988) in Amsterdam. Due to change of location a second design for the Dance Theater was made in 1984. Once completed in 1987, the building received international attention. Although full of "first mistakes", the Dance Theater is the first realized design in which the ideas of Rem Koolhaas were made apparent. IJ-plein is located at the IJ, a river that serves as Amsterdam's waterfront, opposite the city center. The masterplan consists of 1,300 dwellings and several facilities. OMA designed the school, the community center and two blocks of housing.
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