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OMA unveils design for Metropolitan Village residential tower in Taipei

2023-11-09T12:56:00-05:00

OMA has revealed plans for its first post-pandemic residential design in Taipei. The new Metropolitan Village project is being designed by OMA Managing Partner David Gianotten and Taiwan Project Director Chiaju Lin and calls for a 23-story tower comprised of interconnected volumes arranged around a central core.

Image: © WAX Architectural Visualizations, courtesy of OMA

Gianotten says: “Housing has become increasingly multi-functional since the pandemic. For many, it is no longer only a space for domestic activities but also for work, for socializing, for sports, among other happenings. Different than typical residential towers with identical living units, Metropolitan Village has different types of spaces that encourage the residents to define their own lifestyles. The result is a vibrant vertical Metropolitan village with a mix of activities.”

Image: © WAX Architectural Visualizations, courtesy of OMA

Metropolitan Village will be oriented front to back, with its front elevation add...

OMA's Taipei Performing Arts Center officially opens

2022-08-08T15:54:00-04:00

The new Taipei Performing Arts Center by OMA has opened to the public in the city’s Shilin Night Market. Led by Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten, the project comprises three theaters: a spherical 800-seat Globe Playhouse, a 1,500-seat Grand Theater, and an 800-seat Blue Box, connected to a central cube.

Previously on Archinect: OMA's role-defying new theater design debuts in Taipei

The cube houses the stages, backstages, and support spaces of the theaters, which allows the Grand Theater and the Blue Box to come together to form a Super Theater.

Image © Shephotoerd Co. Photography, courtesy of OMA

Image © OMA

The Globe features a unique proscenium that supports experimentation with stage framing. The opaque façades of the theaters juxtapose the animated and illuminated central cube that is clad in corrugated glass.

Image © Shephotoerd Co. Photography, courtesy of OMA

Image © OMA

A landscaped plaza sits beneath the central cube, which is lifted off the ground to accommodate t...

OMA reveals Amsterdam office building with 'woven' brick façade

2021-08-24T14:41:00-04:00

OMA has released their design for the Apollolaan 171 high-end office building in Amsterdam. The scheme will be built on the site of a demolished JP Morgan bank built in the 1980s, whose foundations will be retained and reused for the new five-story building. In contrast to the former bank’s opaque façade, the new building will feature a terracing blend of glass and brick.

Image courtesy of OMA and Kroonenberg Groep

Addressing a corner site along a prominent green avenue, Apollolaan 171 features two prominent façades, each addressing different conditions. The façade facing the prominent avenue features interlocking glass volumes resembling a jigsaw puzzle, proportioned to match the scale of nearby buildings. The main entrance is placed on the corner linking the glass and brick façades, emphasized by both a gradual reduction in the building volumes and a ground floor setback, creating a public space along the avenue.

Image courtesy of OMA and Kroonenberg Groep

Meanwhile, the buildin...

OMA’s MPavilion 2017 moves to new permanent home at Monash University

2018-03-06T14:49:00-05:00

A long summer season with well over 100,000 visitors and 477 free events over 133 days recently wrapped up for the OMA-designed MPavilion 2017 in Melbourne.

The structure will now commence a new, more permanent life after it has been announced that the pavilion will move from its temporary site at the Queen Victoria Gardens to a new home at Monash University in Clayton, a Melbourne suburb.

Photo: John Gollings. Image courtesy of MPavilion.

Conceptualized by Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten, this is the fourth MPavilion in a series of six to be gifted to the City of Melbourne by Australian philanthropist Naomi Milgrom.

Previous pavilions designed by Sean Godsell, Amanda Levete of AL_A, and Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai have found permanent homes at the Hellenic Museums, in Docklands, and in Melbourne Zoo.

Photo: Timothy Burgess. Image courtesy of MPavilion.

"We are pleased that OMA’s MPavilion 2017 will be relocated to one of Melbourne’s universities; places of knowledge and debate," s...

MPavilion 2017, designed by Rem Koolhaas & David Gianotten, unveiled

2017-10-02T15:28:00-04:00

Australia's answer to the U.K's Serpentine Pavilion, MPavilion, opened over the weekend for its fourth iteration, unveiling the completed design by acclaimed architects Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of international firm OMA.

Photo Credit: Timothy Burgess.

Photo Credit: John Gollings.

The structure for MPavilion 2017 is shaped by two tiered grandstands—one fixed, the other moveable—and covered by a floating roof structure. Inspired by ancient amphitheaters, the rotating grandstand allows the pavilion to open up to the garden or broader cityscape and creates a flexible civic space that can function as a stage, auditorium or even a playground.

Photo Credit: John Gollings.

The main infrastructure for the project is a two-metre-deep gridded, machine-like canopy with a protective translucent roof embedded with advanced lighting technology for the series of free public events. The mechanics in the canopy can be activated per the type of event taking place—a...

Naomi Milgrom appoints OMA's Rem Koolhaas, David Gianotten for fourth MPavilion

2017-02-20T23:52:00-05:00

In pavilions you can test things you cannot do within buildings -Rem Koolhaas

Naomi Milgrom has appointed high-profile architects Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of Netherlands-based architecture firm OMA to design the fourth MPavilion temporary culture venue for Melbourne. MPavilion is Australia’s leading architectural commission and design event conceived and created by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation in 2014. Every year, one new temporary pavilion, designed by a leading international architect, is erected in Melbourne’s historic Queen Victoria Gardens.

Rem Koolhaas, founder of OMA and winner of the 2000 Pritzker Prize, is a controversial architect known for his large-scale projects such as CCTV "Pants Building" in Beijing and De Rotterdam "Vertical City" pictured above. On this year's appointment, Ms. Milgrom said “Rem Koolhaas is one of the world’s most provocative and influential architects. His contribution to the cultural landscape as an urban thinker together with OMA’s multi-disciplinary approach to architecture reflects MPavilion’s desire to inspire...

OMA to design major masterplan for Feyernood City in Rotterdam

2016-12-01T13:16:00-05:00

Rotterdam is the hometown and European headquarters of OMA and has many significant buildings by the firm. Now, it’s set to get a new major project. The Mayor and Aldermen of the city just approved a major new masterplan for Feyernoord City, home of the Feyenoord football team. Sited next to the Maas river in Rotterdam-Zuid, the plan includes a new stadium for the team alongside a redevelopment of the neighborhood and the existing stadium, De Kuip.

According to a press release, the 63,000 seat stadium will be the “landmark of Feyenoord City” and a catalyst for future development. The old stadium will be converted into apartments, commercial space and an athletics sports center. An 800m long boulevard, dubbed the Strip, will connect the former stadium to the new one. Additionally, the masterplan includes an 89,000 square meter park and 700 new residential unites.

“With the development of Feyenoord City, OMA contributes to the next phase of development for the city of Rotterdam, our hom...

OMA’s Taipei Performing Arts Center is topped out

2014-08-27T19:05:00-04:00

Since OMA won the competition in 2009, the Taipei Performing Arts Center in Taiwan is gradually coming to life with the recent celebration of its topping out ceremony. OMA design team leaders Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten, Kris Yao and Willy Yu of KRIS YAO | ARTECH, Taipei city mayor Hau Lung-pin, and other city government representatives took part in the event.

According to OMA, the Center's three theaters are meant to encourage experimental theater productions, while the Public Loop invites public engagement from both inside and outside the Center.

Here's a glimpse of the project:

More photos and details on Bustler.

Previously: OMA to Build Taipei Performing Arts Centre

OMA to Design Essence Financial Tower in Shenzhen

2013-02-06T17:25:00-05:00

OMA has been awarded the first place in the international design competition for the Essence Financial Building in Shenzhen, China. OMA Partners David Gianotten and Rem Koolhaas are heading the project which they intend to be a new generation office tower for Shenzhen.

UPDATE: Click here to see the project in more detail.

OMA-designed CCTV Headquarters in Beijing completed

2012-05-16T13:40:00-04:00

It is a very big day for Rem Koolhaas and the entire OMA team, as their iconic CCTV building in Beijing—OMA's largest project so far—is being officially completed today.

↑ CCTV/OMA, photographed by Iwan Baan

Here is the official release we just received from OMA:

Today OMA participated in the official construction completion ceremony for the China Central Television (CCTV) Headquarters in Beijing, which will start to be used later this year. Designed by OMA as a reinvention of the skyscraper as a loop, construction on the building began in 2004. At approximately 473, 000m2, CCTV – accommodating TV studios, offices, broadcasting and production facilities – is OMA’s largest ever project and its first major building in China.

↑ CCTV/OMA, photographed by Iwan Baan

CCTV defies the skyscraper’s typical quest for ultimate height. Rising from a common platform, two towers lean towards each other and eventually merge in a perpendicular, 75-metre cantilever. Th...

OMA Partners Live!

2011-10-25T12:40:00-04:00

Rem Koolhaas, Victor van der Chijs, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka and David Gianotten will discuss their roles within OMA, and how new ideas are transforming the 36-year-old practice. The discussion will be chaired by Chris Dercon, director of Tate Modern.

OMA Partners meet tonight at the Barbican for their first ever public discussion

As the headline event accompanying OMA/Progress, all seven OMA Partners will come together tonight for their first ever public conversation. The talk, called ‘Show & Tell’, takes place in the Barbican’s 1,200-seat theatre; tickets are now sold out.

Rem Koolhaas, Victor van der Chijs, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka and David Gianotten will discuss their roles within OMA, and how new ideas are transforming the 36-year-old practice. The discussion will be chaired by Chris Dercon, director of Tate Modern.

The event will stream live from 7pm GMT tonight; to watch the live-stream please visit this link (warning; it is a facebook link.) The video will also be posted on OMA’s facebook page in the coming days.

Show & Tell is the first in a series of lectures by OMA’s Partners, which continues with David Gianotten, Partner in Charge of OMA Asia, discussing speed in architecture. Thi...