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A day at the Office - OMA BNA

Viola

A day at the Office, a film about Rem Koolhaas' OMA Office.

 
Jan 11, 08 2:35 pm
Viola

Forgot to mention that it's in dutch and english.

Jan 11, 08 2:42 pm  · 
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wow you're not kidding about dutchandenglish.

Jan 11, 08 3:05 pm  · 
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and wow. that was a waste of ten minutes.

Jan 11, 08 3:11 pm  · 
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this is what i saw;


A perfect office. like many other great offices sought after by the elite.
just like their oma buildings. 'well organized, talented, spontaneous, seemingly fair, qualified, responsible, busy, attractive, all rem but all you too.'

theoretically, i would buy the stock if they were public but of course under one condition that rem stays on top of it until at least i get my money back.
the office in the video really reads like a think-tank of architecture. one of the best in its class.
these people are all smiles because they know they've made it to a place and if they decide to go elsewhere or on their own, they will have oma logo attached to their cv in various contrast levels and that has a relatively variable 'value' in the market place.

i liked the video too.

it is definitely best recruitment department styled video i have seen for architecture. i think we will see more of this type of videos as the architectural job market becomes more corporate and multi national and necessiate a bar coded talent pool. that is the most interesting part.

video has a nice sweet action which opens and closes with the wideshot that the real world outside and inside office are only separated with a thin layer of glass and moving with the same speed, a reality connection, opaque on the lower level but see thru on the upper.

the whole oma experience smooth and espresso time like.
ie; when the african architect tells her team about the deadline and camera catches the nod and switching of the eyes of the another team member. like, you know it will get done. they know what they are doing, they have done it before. it is a very nice vignette to their deadline handling, from both sides of the telephone call. was it rem on the the other side?

i also would like the people on the roof didn't keep their hands in their pockets. but that's just me. i think rem koolhaas does that too...

and of course, the receptionist was the pit boss, distributing the incoming data, she is the lifeline.

dutch has such tone that is really close to english. i understood most of the first person and what she said about the place and her experience. i think she also mentioned that ultimetly it was rem's work.
i remembered it being black and white and i watched it again to see it was in color. there was also a nice touch with the use of 'red bic ball point pen' in one of the small design meetings in the first person segment.

definitely a+ action for the video director/contractor.
i wonder how som, ny is like? i think you can apply the above same video idea to them as well.

Jan 11, 08 4:49 pm  · 
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vado retro

that was some smooooooth jazz and that one girl had some great conference call chops....

a day in the life...

woke up at five couldn't sleep thinking about all my fantastic architectural ideas....
made some coffee...
paid a visa bill...
went back to sleep for a half hour...
8 a.m. went to office...
had some coffee...
put on pandora...my leonard cohen station
opened up autocad...
coordinated some drawings...drew a little bit...
got some more coffee...checked my mailbox. w-2's are here!
told my coworkers about orhan workin with michael rotondi. who's michael rotundi they asked?wtf?
10 a.m. ate some cereal...
called liberty bell. she hung up on me. something about expecting a real call...
talked with a coworker about how f'd up this project is...
12 went home for lunch and watched the end of being john malkovich...
1 came back got more coffee and continued working listened to wilco station on pandora.
between 1-5 worked on said f'd up project.
sent some drawings to a client...talked to liberty bell, emailed myriam!, straightened some stuff. logged out cleaned coffee cup, left...
post work- rented videos bought a bottle of plungerhead zin...

hardly the stuff of great video,,,

Jan 11, 08 6:54 pm  · 
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xtbl

actually vado, it might be interesting in an american splendor kind of way!

Jan 11, 08 6:58 pm  · 
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mdler

-woke up
-got out of bed
-i came to work today 1/2 hr late 'cause I was making Tumbles breakfast
-drafted some sections
-went to lunch with some other architecture friends...got sort of drunk
-came back to office and ate a grapefruit
-drafted some more
-plotted drawings
-listening to Radiohead In Rainbows for the 3rd or 4th time today
-going to go watch the weeklies for 'Morel Orel' TV show
-probably going to go out for drinks
-going to go home and go to bed (with Tumbles)
-wake up early tomorrow and go to San Francisco (with Tumbles and Mies Dog)

Jan 11, 08 7:18 pm  · 
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Orhan....I felt the same way about the first woman.....maybe learning Dutch won't be so hard after all, because everything she said sounded so familiar! And it was very smooth. It does look like a great place to work.

I guess I'm a little confused though. Is this a recruitment video (and if so, why) or is it just informational? Doesn't this take away some of the intrigue?

Jan 11, 08 7:30 pm  · 
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mightylittle™

can this be a day in the life of anybody?

-woke up 6:15ish to crying baby
-back to sleep at 6:17
-woke up 6:20ish to crying baby
-back to sleep at 6:25
-woke up to alarm clock at 7:07
-back to sleep at 7:08
-woke up to crying baby at 7:10
-got out of bed
-narrowly missed stepping in dog's own poop on her bed. wtf?
-picked up poop at 7:16 and threw it in backyard
-washed hands till 7:22
-read emails till 7:46
-ate stroopwaffel
-showered and prepared for site visit for prospective project
-bought cup of coffee (brown sugar + 2%)
-went to site visit at 9:30
-stood around an empty storefront chatting about cfm's and duct shafts
-got to office at 10:55
-wrote emails for ten minutes
-left for meeting in SF for new project meeting
-listened to indecisive client for 30 minutes
-architect arrives, listen to her and her team for 45 minutes
-got MMS from mrs. mL w/ picture of baby
-listened to more indecisiveness by client for 60 more minutes
-leave and get bahn mi at VIETNAM restaurant. yum.
-go back to office
-finish bid analysis for $1.75m kitchen. 5 bidders. BORING.
-email analysis
-check archinect
-check out for the day at 5:30 and rent movie to attempt to watch between diaper changes. woot woot!

rinse, lather, repeat.

Jan 11, 08 8:30 pm  · 
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holz.box

uh, why would rem bother putting out a video for recruitment? they seriously can't be hurting for talent... they get a million cv's a day...

Jan 11, 08 10:18 pm  · 
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harold

This video clearly shows that you have to make it in architecture before you're 30. It is like gymnastics. Don't think of getting into gymnastics or in this case architecture at a later age. Architecture is all about being young. You will never hear about a 45 year old architecture with only 5 years experience who has made it in this profession.

Jan 11, 08 10:58 pm  · 
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just for the record, the film was not made for OMA but for the BNA
(Royal Institute of Dutch Architects).
it was comissioned to be shown at the prize ceremony for OMA receiving the BNA Kubus, an important award from the BNA.

Jan 12, 08 9:27 am  · 
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n_

Minus the pit boss, the movie looked like a United Colors of Benetton ad.

Jan 12, 08 9:44 am  · 
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vado retro

meta- eight to five minus lunch is eight hours. might wanna work on the math skills...

Jan 12, 08 10:21 am  · 
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brut

I'm pretty sure that first lady was an american speaking dutch as best she could....there was a lot of pure english in there.

Jan 12, 08 10:27 am  · 
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the first girl was italian, and she is saying quite basic things, like.
i have worked here for 4 years etc...
also she doesn't pronnounce the words with the hard 'g' sound that dutch ppl do. that makes it alot easier to understand her.

Jan 12, 08 10:41 am  · 
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It's Dutchlish!

Jan 12, 08 10:49 am  · 
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vado retro

is it common for dutch speakers to lapse into english? i was watching blackbook and that happened several times. or are they in fact danglish words that are the same in both languages?

Jan 12, 08 10:50 am  · 
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its a bit of both, there are many words that sound the same.
eg. work = werk, year = jaar, beer = bier, etc....
and that the dutch do drop in some english expressions.

Jan 12, 08 10:59 am  · 
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vado retro

meta, i bill about 86 percent of my time which is above my billable hour target. thanks for caring though.

Jan 12, 08 4:57 pm  · 
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vado retro

it was f'd up long before i came along. i'm de-f'ing it. sorry i don't possess your ubermenschiness.

Jan 12, 08 5:06 pm  · 
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BLK

OK, so the video is boring - is way to calm for a OMA kind of architecture. is like selling flowers.

But the italian girl is cute! - so after all it worth it.

Jan 13, 08 7:18 am  · 
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ha. i agree, blk. i expected to be thrilled, but it was just do do do do, da da da da.

Jan 13, 08 8:06 am  · 
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vado retro

and what is it with that one dude they show. he is wearing a white undershirt at work? wassdefucken man?

Jan 13, 08 8:12 am  · 
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snook_dude

I have to watch this Video...since I have read all the posts relating to the Video...

Jan 13, 08 10:39 am  · 
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simples

wow...when i grow up, i want to be an architect

the video seemed to depict an office efficient to the point of being serene and content...which is exactly the opposite of what i had heard of OMA (chaotic, dysfunctional, stressful)...i am sure it's right in between...

Jan 14, 08 5:51 pm  · 
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vado retro

yeah don't there ads always say something like,,,must thrive in a high stress environment. that place looks like a clean lab. are they making microchips there?

Jan 14, 08 10:48 pm  · 
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ki

I am not sure whether the office being less cluttered implies less work pressure or stress, ......well... in my opinion NO

Jan 14, 08 11:11 pm  · 
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*woke up
*realised it was raining, rolled over and caught a few more minutes sleep
*finally got up brushed my teeth and bathed
*fed the puppy
*went back to bed
*got up, got dressed - headed out the door
*stopped for oranges
*showed up late with oranges - I was the hero
*checked email/archinect/blog
*still checking email/archinect/blog
*checked time...is it noon yet?
*checked email/archinect/blog
*had conversation with co-worker...said I had work to do
*checked email/archinect/blog
*is it noon yet?

Jan 15, 08 9:51 am  · 
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Apurimac

-rolled out of bed 10 min before having to leave for work
-commuted by subway, cold outside
-got to office, picked up a check for delivery to Brooklyn
-got tea and a muffin for subway ride, to help my cold
-dropped off check in brooklyn
-got back to manhattan, made the wrong train connection, went back to brooklyn
-got back on manhattan train
-got to office, got served with nasty law suit judgement from way before my time here
-sent email to boss notifying boss of said suit
-cocking about on archinect

Jan 15, 08 12:00 pm  · 
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facader

Halfway through the video they show a quick clip of Kip from Napoleon Dynamite sitting at his desk pushing up his glasses. He epitomizes why working for OMA would be so sweet. Cage fighting all day.

Jan 15, 08 12:21 pm  · 
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snook_dude

I think everyone in this movie is a union actor or actress, they look to damn good.

Jan 15, 08 3:23 pm  · 
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