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Synopsis

Originally published to great critical acclaim in 1966, this text combines a selection of design works produced by the Dutch firm, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (O.M.A.) and its founder, Rem Koolhaas.

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4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)

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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The hardest book on the block, 8 Feb 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large (Evergreens) (Hardcover)

From the hardbacked industrial cover to the spine binding holding about 20 kilos of pages, this book is HARD.

Cleverly constructed, with insightful narratives, detailed case studies and poetic asides, this book is beautifully designed throughout. This is not a book that is read in a linear fashion, but rather explored and experienced - like the real, virtual and conceptual environments appearing in its pages.

Don't try and read it in bed though - unless you've got arms like Arnie.

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Amazon.com: 4.3 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews)

97 of 127 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Extra Medium..., 13 Nov 2004

By tierny - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Small, Medium, Large, Extra-Large (Hardcover)

There's a terrific line in Breakfast at Tiffany's. George Peppard proudly hands neighbor Audrey Hepburn a copy of his just-published book. She has no idea what to do with it, so she puts it on a shelf next to a vase, backs away and says "Doesn't that look nice?"
This book is a lot like that. A self-conciously designed object for the homes of style consumers who already have the right clothes and the B&B Italia furniture. A prop for the still-life they want to inhabit. If they ever got around to "reading" it, they'd discover to their great relief... it's NOT a book to be read in any strict classical sense.

It also reminds me of a New Yorker cartoon where one associate asks another, "Read the first few pages of any good books lately?" The age of the short attention span is not going away any time soon. This hefty grey slab is easily recast as the shiny new headstone for verbalized intelligence.

As Kracauer holds it, there's nothing wrong with framing a culture via fragments, but I have plenty of qualms about advancing one's own ideas that way. And I'm suspect of ideas that trowel on style in the abundance seen here. If I could believe Bruce Mau's intentions were more than just trying to look new, (This 'look' now permeates architecture publications) I'd have more respect for this, but it was obviously calculated as a totem of style and style-suffusion.

For better or for worse, the book got noticed, the industry was distracted by the pretty surfaces and the ascent of Koolhaas is a done deal.
If you want to actually READ a book full of Koolhaas' thoughts, skip this and get a copy of Delirious New York.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to pack a city into a book - Lesson 1, 14 Jun 1998

By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Small, Medium, Large, Extra-Large (Hardcover)

This is a dense manifesto of ideas. It might be termed a printed hypertext, with a continuous glossary of terms being defined by Koolhaas this could serve as an alternative dictionary. The book is too broad for simply architecture, urban planning theory &c. which it professes to having as its infrastructure. It deals with all design issues, from the content of OMAs projects, to the beautifully printed and assembled object that is the book itself. Attempt to read as a linear narrative at your own risk.

24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MASTERPIECE, 29 Mar 1999

By dpfeiffer@mindspring.com - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Small, Medium, Large, Extra-Large (Hardcover)

I'm about half way through it and already it has profoundly changed my view of the world around me. This book transcends architecture and touches on spirituality, politics, society and culture. A stirring manifesto for the convergence of several aspects of the global condition. Reading it has sparked a wave of creativity in my own line of work (financial analyst/software developer). Why is architecture important? Because it deals with the design of systems. Physical systems, biological, computer and natural systems. Architecture is life. I beleive Mr. Koolhaas understands this by evidence of his writings. Bravo!

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