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Rem Koolhaas, Delirious New York 1978, drawing by Marion Vriesendorp © Authors
Supercrits revisit legacy-building architectural projects in an international critical forum. The key protagonists are invited to present one historic project, which may have been built or unbuilt, temporary or permanent, to a panel of critics, project collaborators, and an audience of students, peers and the public. They offer a rare opportunity to hear first-hand stories behind the project and to put questions to the original design team.
Hosted by Samantha Hardingham and Kester Rattenbury at EXP, Centre for Experimental Practice at the University of Westminster.
Supercrit #5:
Rem Koolhaas presents Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan, 1978
05 May 2006
Written in 1978, Delirious New York has been called the end of architectural utopias, celebrating congestion, fantasy, ambivalence and the confrontation of high and low cultures. It also invented a new genre of architectural writing which was to take the world by storm.
Presenter: Rem Koolhaas, Principal, OMA and publication author
Chair: Paul Finch, editor, The Architectural Review
Panel: Mark Wigley, Dean of Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University, New York, and architectural critic; Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Principal, Foreign Office Architects (former student of Koolhaas); David Greene, member, Archigram and professor of architecture, University of Westminster.
Drawings by Marion Vriesendorp
Click here for an annotated and illustrated video.
Excerpts from Rem Koolhaas, Delirious New York, 1978
Event Photos
Supercrit #5: Rem Koolhaas and panel © The AF
Supercrit #5: Rem Koolhaas © The AF
Supercrit #4:
Bernard Tschumi presents Parc de la Villette, Paris
14 October 2005
The coveted commission to design the Parc de la Villette was won by Bernard Tschumi in 1982 and completed in 1988. It is today considered as a pioneering example of late 20th century landscape architecture and deconstructionist architecture, perhaps best known for its characteristic grid of bright red abstract ‘folies’. Part of an urban renewal plan, Parc de la Villette was built on the site of the former national meat market and slaughterhouse in the outskirts of Paris. Tschumi has described his design as “the first built work specifically exploring the concepts of superimposition and dissociation”.
Presenter: Bernard Tschumi, Principal architect of Parc de la Villette, Paris
Chair: Paul Finch, editor, The Architectural Review
Panel: Peter Cook, Archigram; Carlos Villanueva Brandt, founding member of NATO; Bruce Mclean, visual artist; and Murray Fraser, University of Westminster, alongside members of the original design and engineering team.
Bernard Tschumi, Parc de la Villette, Paris © The Architect
Bernard Tschumi, Parc de la Villette, Paris © The Architect
Book Excerpt
Following the event, a publication was produced.
Supercrit #4: Bernard Tschumi, Parc de la Villette
Kester Rattenbury and Samantha Hardingham
Routledge, 2012
Rattenbury and Hardingham, Supercrit #4, Routledge 2012, cover © The Authors
Rattenbury and Hardingham, Supercrit #4, Routledge 2012, excerpt © The Authors
Rattenbury and Hardingham, Supercrit #4, Routledge 2012, excerpt © The Authors
Event Photos
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Bernard Tschumi, Parc de la Villette, Paris © Marie-Sophie Leturcq