Since it hit June, I've been thinking a lot about my dissertation and i'm beginning to wonder if the 7,000 word count limit would really be enough. So it was great when I came across a documentary that Rem Koolhaas had created.
Also known as Remment Koolhaas, the dutch architect and urban theorist, is one of the most influential artistic people of our times. With his firm OMA he continues to push the boundaries with many of his controversial designs. Many architects are controversial however, unlike Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry, Koolhaas throws you off balance with his wide and forever expanding ideas that don't necessarily form a pattern. 2014 is seeming to be quite the eventful year for Koolhaas, as it was announced earlier this year that he was to be director for the Venice Biennale, (open now to the public till November) and has an upcoming documentary titled 'REM', directed by son and filmmaker Tomas Koolhaas.
One of his notable buildings, the CCTV headquarters in Bejing China, still bewilders me as it is more of a statement than anything else. Usually architects compete for the height of their skyscrapers, but Koolhaas was most interested in the connection that people have with a skyscrapers spatial irregular forms and sculptural aesthetic. This conflicting building not only displays power but also a true notion of rebellion in society.
"It was an expression of disappointment at the way the skyscraper typology was used and applied. I didn’t think there was a lot of creative life left in skyscrapers. Therefore, I tried to launch a campaign against the skyscraper in its more uninspired form."
Whilst I watched his documentary, Lagos: Wide and Close, I realised why Lagos fascinates me so much. The themes that hit the country like the population growth and the connection with the urban environment excites me because it doesn't even make sense and it thoroughly frustrates me. I'll still stick by guns and state that Nigeria is not a developing country but more a power country with Lagos being an archetype of the megacity. It is not only one of the most powerful countries in Africa, but in the world. With our many resources, this year especially sees a high influx in our economy as we reached $500 billion, however Nigerians would never notice, as the income for the year that ploughs in is lower than $3000 a year; informing the constant struggle. The stature of which it stands is so powerful, yet factors like the absence of social services for the poor and the lack of the education for the majority still manage to keep Nigeria at a constant standstill. Contrary to this, Lagos is forever hustling. Very different to most African countries,where it is far more relaxed with people taking their time to glance at the sun now and then, Nigeria is constantly moving. By 2015 it has been predicted that Lagos will rank third behind Bombay and Tokyo with twenty-three million inhabitants. Woah!
Imagine twenty-three million people in the urban jungle that is Lagos. It blows my mind. Twenty-three million people tightly squeezed together striving to survive. We all know that Lagos is already packed with the 15 million people already. So how will we now cope with the extra millions??
Koolhaas continues to note:
“What particularly amazes me is how the kinds of infrastructure of modernity in the city trigger off all sorts of unpredictable improvised conditions, so that there is a kind of mutual dependency that I’ve never seen anywhere else.”
I thoroughly enjoyed the documentary as Koolhaas entered what most architects just ramble on about. Even though I thought to myself that it could have gone in with more vigour and detail, maybe even going into the villages and seeing the structure within the different tribal cultures and investigating more into the complex organisations within the city. Nevertheless, I highly appreciated that he himself has evolved with Nigeria by visiting four times and researching for the past 12 years. He has been able to see firsthand Lagos flourish in all its totalities and also see how it continues inspire as it grows. This documentary not only validated the content of my dissertation but made me eager to research more into Koolhaas.
I believe strongly that Nigeria will get better. Koolhaas believes this too, identifying Nigeria as an "announcement of the future". I don't even understand where I get this faith from because I know how corrupted my country is. Nigerians are smart individuals, but it's time we realise that the holy ground we stand on or that our forefathers stood on is powerful and has given birth to so many blessings because if we don't soon, other people will take it away from us and slowly it's already happening.
To watch Rem Koolhaas' interactive documentary click here.
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