Kolhaas The White Slave Analysis

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Koolhaas quickly began following in his father’s footsteps as a filmmaker/screenwriter, but soon realized that his true passion lied in building. He began writing at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam. “Koolhaas co-wrote The White Slave, a 1969 Dutch film noir, and later wrote an unproduced script for American king Russ Meyer.” He also worked as a reporter for a newspaper called the Amsterdam weekly. During his time as a reporter and working in cinema, Koolhaas realized that he really wanted to be building. Cinema and architecture do not seem to be very similar career choices, but then again neither do engineering and art, or pre-med and history. Perception is all based on the person and Koolhaas works on a building the …show more content…

The house was built for a family a five including a husband who had unfortunately been involved in a car accident, which left him paralyzed. The family wanted the house to accommodate all the needs of the husband/father. They wanted the house to be a combination of the life the husband/father now lived, and their personal lives. The most important task was to create a home for a man who felt trapped by the traditional home. It needed to give him the freedom to move and travel through the whole house in a wheel chair. The family wanted to ensure that he would no longer feel limited by the things he could not utilize anymore. At the same time, the family also did not want the house to seem like it was for disabled people, making this project quite the challenge for Koolhaas. He excitedly took on the challenge to build this home, which was also limited in height and materials and the result was magnificent. Rem divided the project up into three main parts. The first was horizontal levels. The bottom level was the most incredible. It consisted of many caves that were carved into the hillside. These cave like structures contained separate spaces including a kitchen, a wine cellar, and other separate rooms. In the center was a beautiful glass living room and to allow freedom of movement, the architect created a glass elevator to travel between the house's three levels. The husband’s study/office became a …show more content…

The building’s main purpose is to display exhibitions in the Netherlands. The building was built by OMA and consists of a large space approximately 3,300 square meters. The large space gives the gallery the ability to host multiple exhibitions at the same time and therefore attract more viewers. Many people view this gallery as a museum; however it is not necessarily just that. Unlike other museums, Kunsthal’s goal is to combine the art and exhibitions with education. It offers high-quality showings and is closely intertwined with institutions nearby. The Kunsthal offers learning programs as well as research opportunities. The most incredible thing about the building is how it was built. Koolhaas stayed loyal to the materials he finds interesting especially when combined together into one space. The walls are made from “unfinished concrete and corrugated, or ridged, plastic; metal grids serve as the floor; and tree trunk are used as pillars.” Koolhaas enjoys using inexpensive materials and resources that would not commonly be used when creating a larger gallery such as this one. His desire to use materials such as tree trunks, plastic, and concrete is similar to the techniques and fundamentals of the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus’s main goal is to stick to simplicity and use common fundamentals to create something more than what is seen at first glance. The school

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