Rem Koolhus is a dutch architect who was born in 1944, he graduated from the Architectural Association in London, before his work was being noticed and recognised he was known for being a urban theorist, this was because of his book ‘Delirious New York: A Retrospective Manifesto for Manhattan’ which was published in 1978.
Koolhaus was called a deconstructionist by many people, this was because of his combination of theoretical writing and also his love for symmetry, he also used unexpected colours within his work however he still kept a strong sense of humanity and this played a big role within his architecture.
One of his designs is the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, it is the headquarters for China Central Television which was completed in 2008, after taking four years to build. The building is not a normal tower, it is a loop of six horizontal and vertical sections which create a irregular grid one the facade of the building. The construction was said to be a structural challenge and Koolhas even said the building ‘could never have been conceived by the Chinese and could never have been built by Europeans. Its a hybrid by definition’.
Peta-Louise Krog 