Blog

Review: Rem Koolhaas: Exodus

This piece is a bit unsettling since I do not subscribe to the notion that confinement as liberating. I guess in a way it could be but I’d hate to be confined in an oppressive way which seemed to flow through the writing. This lead my down a thought of whether or not architecture acts as empowerment or whether it is exerting control. And it may be both. While some forms or structures are meant to empower the user to create or explore, others are meant to exert a sense of control over the communities such as churches, courthouses, or even regular government buildings. Each time we willingly engage, sort of, with both forms of architecture. We can choose to enter spaces which are defined by their attempts to confine, or we can choose to go into curated spaces which bring us pleasure. Nevertheless, architecture has the power to both shape civic but also manipulate the masses beneath it. It is a very powerful function of human life, and should not be taken upon lightly.

Author Background

Rem Koolhaas (b. 1944, Rotterdam) co-founded OMA and is a leading architectural theorist. Elia and Zoe Zenghelis collaborated closely with him, and Madelon Vreisendorp contributed artwork. Written in London amid the experimental climate of the early 1970s, the project reflects the radical visions of Archigram and Superstudio. Koolhaas later developed related themes in Delirious New York (1978). Exodus circulated through exhibitions and journals, positioning it as both critique and manifesto for architecture’s cultural power.