OMA/Rem Koolhaas Housing, Nexus World


  • Caption
    View of Exterior
Related people
Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) (was created by)
Rem Koolhaas (was created by)
Date
1988-1991
Location
Asia->Japan->Fukuoka->Fukuoka
Description
"For our first project in Japan we wanted to introduce a new type of housing - not the conventional apartment building, not the freestanding house that we had experimented in Europe - but one which could now be realised in the (economic) conditions of Japan. The project consists of 24 individual houses, each three stories high, packed together to form two blocks. In contrast to their compactness, each house is penetrated by a private vertical courtyard that introduces light and space into the center of each house.
The exterior of the blocks is marked by closed cyclopic walls that serve as socles to Isozaki's towers. Escaping from the block walls are the floating rooflines of the houses. The walls are lifted to give access to the interior of the blocks - each house is accessible through a concourse that runs around and through the blocks." (Marquez & Levene (Eds.), 1994, p.86)
This project is a part of the Nexus World project by Arata Isozaki. Isozaki only provided a rough indication of the site and the building volume to housing block ratio, leaving each architect to devise the form and style as he liked. He invited Steven Holl, Rem Koolhaas, Mark Mack, Osamu Ishiyama, Christian de Portzamparc, and Oscar Tusquets to define a superblock with freestanding perimeter buildings for a client who wanted to introduce a 'new urban lifestyle' to Japan.
Style/Period
1990s (1990 - 1999)
Heisei Period (1989 - present)
Source
Marquez, F., & Levene, R. (Eds.). (1994). OMA/Rem Koolhaas, 1987, 1993. El Escorial, Madrid: Croquis Editorial. p. 86-101.