THE ENDS OF MODERNISM - STRUCTURALISM AND SURREALlSM IN THE WORK OF REM KOOLHAA5.pdf

DISS. ETH Nr. 15164
THE ENDS OF MODERN15M
STRUCTURALISM AND SURREALlSM IN THE WORK OF REM KOOLHAA5
DOKTORANDIN DER
der
EIDGENÖSSISCHEN TECHNISCHEN HOCHSCHULE ZÜRICH
Vorgelegt von
FRANCES HSU
Master of Architecture
Harvard University, .
Angenommen auf Antrag von
Prof. Dr. Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani
Prof. Dr. Stanislaus von Moos
2003
Abstract
Statement of Intent
This dissertation looks at the intertwining of two philosophical discourses in the work of
Rem Koolhaas. It examines the implementation of conceptual, pictorial and textual
techniques associated with Surrealism and Structuralism. Koolhaas employs these
movements that deal with the structure of the unconscious mind in order to expose the
irrational side of the modern movement and its claims to functionalism, propriety and
objectivity, all terms which can be addressed by the umbrella term sachlichkeit.
The dissertation is motivated by experience working in the office of OMA in 1993 and
includes interviews with Koolhaas and others. It engages biography, formal analysis and
historical criticism to locate in the writings, competitions and selected projects certain
strategies of theoretical and critlcal production. It identifies and analyses the elements
constituting the work, the deployment of those elements and their points of impact in light
of the frameworks they originally targeted.
The wo