The book is a critical essay on the origins of Rem Koolhaas’ reading of the City, (which is in any way indissociable from his architectural production). It presents a pretty uncommon image of the architect and theorist, identifying the genesis of his thinking in his roamings across 1968 Parisian streets when they resonated utopian slogans such as “Sous les pavés la plage!”. Later on, the essay follows Koolhaas through his years at the Architectural Association school in London and then through his intense activity as a collector of illustrated postcards in 1970’s NYC, while writing “Delirious New York”. What is argued is that Koolhaas, pointing out that the City is a preexisting “condition before being a place”, – the locus for endogenous forces to unfold -, perpetuates the “rhetoric of the bourgeoisie myth”, the idea that “the norms of the bourgeoisie are experienced as undeniable or obvious laws of a natural order” as stated by R.Barthes.
Rem Koolhaas and the Bourgeois Myth of New York
MASTRIGLI, Gabriele
2017-01-01
Abstract
The book is a critical essay on the origins of Rem Koolhaas’ reading of the City, (which is in any way indissociable from his architectural production). It presents a pretty uncommon image of the architect and theorist, identifying the genesis of his thinking in his roamings across 1968 Parisian streets when they resonated utopian slogans such as “Sous les pavés la plage!”. Later on, the essay follows Koolhaas through his years at the Architectural Association school in London and then through his intense activity as a collector of illustrated postcards in 1970’s NYC, while writing “Delirious New York”. What is argued is that Koolhaas, pointing out that the City is a preexisting “condition before being a place”, – the locus for endogenous forces to unfold -, perpetuates the “rhetoric of the bourgeoisie myth”, the idea that “the norms of the bourgeoisie are experienced as undeniable or obvious laws of a natural order” as stated by R.Barthes.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
