Translucent oppositions. OMA’s proposal for the 1980 Venice Architecture Biennale

2015-05-12T11:44:00-04:00

"Here is a nice excursion into the early days of the discussion on facades and how to avoid them. Wish I had seen it in real, and at the time. " - via Karen Lohrmann

Some excerpts from the conversation between Rem Koolhaas, Stefano de Martino and Léa-Catherine Szacka discussing post modernism, 1980 Venice Architecture Biennale and the opposition to facadism from the early collaborators.

A historical delight!

Stefano de Martino [SdM]: The piece of canvas was a temporary screen – the only concession to an exterior presence was the OMA neon sign. We did not play the formalist game, proving that architecture can be very little, that you can concentrate on content.

Rem Koolhaas: I hated the idea of having to do a facade, even more a facade to represent oneself. So there were essentially a number of things that we wanted to avoid.

SdM: We were never into facadism. Maybe now that it’s all about facades, you don’t hear this word anymore, but at the time it was an insult. We saw the Strada Noviss...

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Translucent oppositions. OMA’s proposal for the 1980 Venice Architecture Biennale