Rem Koolhaas Project on the city
What good did the EU do for their country?
What good did the EU do for Rem Koolhaas' country?
Koolhaas's next landmark publications were a product of his position as professor at Harvard University, in the Design school's "Project on the City"; firstly the 720-page Mutations, followed by The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping (2002) and The Great Leap Forward (2002). All three books involved Koolhaas's students analysing what others would regard as "non-cities", sprawling conglomerates such as Lagos in Nigeria, west Africa, which the authors argue are highly functional despite a lack of infrastructure. The authors also examine the influence of shopping habits and the recent rapid growth of cities in China. Critics of the books have criticised Koolhaas for being cynical - as if Western capitalism and globalization demolish all cultural identity - highlighted in the notion expounded in the books that "In the end, there will be little else for us to do but shop". However, such cynicism can alternatively be read as a "realism" about the transformation of cultural life, where airports and even museums (due to finance problems) rely just as much on operating gift shops.  When it comes to transforming these observations into practice, Koolhaas mobilizes what he regards as the omnipotent forces of urbanism into unique design forms and connections organised along the lines of present-day society. Koolhaas continuously incorporates his observations of the contemporary city within his design activities: calling such a condition the 'culture of congestion'. Again, shopping is examined for "intellectual comfort", whilst the unregulated taste and densification of Chinese cities is analysed according to "performance", a criterion involving variables with debatable credibility: density, newness, shape, size, money etc. For example, in his design for the new CCTV headquarters in Beijing (2009), Koolhaas did not opt for the stereotypical skyscraper, often used to symbolise and landmark such government enterprises, but instead designed a series of volumes which not only tie together the numerous departments onto the nebulous site, but also introduced routes (again, the concept of cross-programming) for the general public through the site, allowing them some degree of access to the production procedure. Through his ruthlessly raw approach, Koolhaas hopes to extract the architect from the anxiety of a dead profession and resurrect a contemporary interpretation of the sublime, however fleeting it may be.  In 2003, Content, a 544-page magazine-style book designed by &&& Creative and published by Koolhaas, gives an overview of the last decade of OMA projects including his designs for the Prada shops, the Seattle Public Library, a plan to save Cambridge from Harvard by rechanneling the Charles River, Lagos' future as Earth's third-biggest city, as well as interviews with Martha Stewart and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. CANNOTANSWER
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Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a representative of Deconstructivism and is the author of Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan.

He is seen by some as one of the truly significant architectural thinkers and urbanists of his generation, by others as a self-important iconoclast. In 2000, Rem Koolhaas won the Pritzker Prize. In 2008, Time put him in their top 100 of The World's Most Influential People. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2014.

Early life and career
Remment Koolhaas, usually abbreviated to Rem Koolhaas, was born on 17 November 1944 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, to Anton Koolhaas (1912–1992) and Selinde Pietertje Roosenburg (born 1920). His father was a novelist, critic, and screenwriter. Two documentary films by Bert Haanstra for which his father wrote the scenarios were nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature, one won a Golden Bear for Short Film. His maternal grandfather, Dirk Roosenburg (1887–1962), was a modernist architect who worked for Hendrik Petrus Berlage, before opening his own practice. Rem Koolhaas has a brother, Thomas, and a sister, Annabel. His paternal cousin was the architect and urban planner Teun Koolhaas (1940–2007). The family lived consecutively in Rotterdam (until 1946), Amsterdam (1946–1952), Jakarta (1952–1955), and Amsterdam (from 1955).

His father strongly supported the Indonesian cause for autonomy from the colonial Dutch in his writing. When the war of independence was won, he was invited over to run a cultural programme for three years and the family moved to Jakarta in 1952. "It was a very important age for me," Koolhaas recalls "and I really lived as an Asian."

In 1969, Koolhaas co-wrote The White Slave, a Dutch film noir, and later wrote an unproduced script for American soft-porn king Russ Meyer.

He was a journalist in 1963 at age 19 for the Haagse Post  before starting studies in architecture in 1968 at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, followed, in 1972, by further studies with Oswald Mathias Ungers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, followed by studies at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York City.

Koolhaas first came to public and critical attention with OMA (The Office for Metropolitan Architecture), the office he founded in 1975 together with architects Elia Zenghelis, Zoe Zenghelis and (Koolhaas's wife) Madelon Vriesendorp in London. They were later joined by one of Koolhaas's students, Zaha Hadid – who would soon go on to achieve success in her own right. An early work which would mark their difference from the then dominant postmodern classicism of the late 1970s, was their contribution to the Venice Biennale of 1980, curated by Italian architect Paolo Portoghesi, titled "Presence of the Past". Each architect had to design a stage-like "frontage" to a Potemkin-type internal street; the façades by , Frank Gehry and OMA were the only ones that did not employ Post-Modern architecture motifs or historical references.

Other early critically received (yet unbuilt) projects included the Parc de la Villette, Paris (1982) and the residence for the Prime Minister of Ireland (1979), as well as the Kunsthal in Rotterdam (1992). These schemes would attempt to put into practice many of the findings Koolhaas made in his book Delirious New York (1978), which was written while he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York, directed by Peter Eisenman.

Architectural theory

Delirious New York
Koolhaas's book Delirious New York set the pace for his career. Koolhaas analyzes the "chance-like" nature of city life: "The City is an addictive machine from which there is no escape" "Rem Koolhaas...defined the city as a collection of 'red hot spots'." (Anna Klingmann).  As Koolhaas himself has acknowledged, this approach had already been evident in the Japanese Metabolist Movement in the 1960s and early 1970s.

A key aspect of architecture that Koolhaas interrogates is the "Program": with the rise of modernism in the 20th century the "Program" became the key theme of architectural design. The notion of the Program involves "an act to edit function and human activities" as the pretext of architectural design: epitomised in the maxim form follows function, first popularised by architect Louis Sullivan at the beginning of the 20th century. The notion was first questioned in Delirious New York, in his analysis of high-rise architecture in Manhattan. An early design method derived from such thinking was "cross-programming", introducing unexpected functions in room programmes, such as running tracks in skyscrapers. More recently, Koolhaas unsuccessfully proposed the inclusion of hospital units for the homeless into the Seattle Public Library project (2003).

Project on the city
Koolhaas' next publications were a by-product of his position as professor at Harvard University, in the Design school's "Project on the City"; firstly the 720-page Mutations, followed by The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping (2002) and The Great Leap Forward (2002).

All three books published student work analysing what others would regard as "non-cities", sprawling conglomerates such as Lagos in Nigeria, west Africa, which the authors argue are highly functional despite a lack of infrastructure. The authors also examine the influence of shopping habits and the recent rapid growth of cities in China. Critics of the books have criticised Koolhaas for being cynical, – as if Western capitalism and globalization demolish all cultural identity – highlighted in the notion expounded in the books that "In the end, there will be little else for us to do but shop". Perhaps such caustic cynicism can be read as a "realism" about the transformation of cultural life, where airports and even museums (due to finance problems) rely just as much on operating gift shops. It does, however, demonstrate one of the architect's characteristic devices for deflecting criticism: attack the client or subject of study after completing the work.

When it comes to transforming these observations into practice, Koolhaas mobilizes what he regards as the omnipotent forces of urbanism into unique design forms and connections organised along the lines of present-day society. Koolhaas continuously incorporates his observations of the contemporary city within his design activities: calling such a condition the ‘culture of congestion’. Again, shopping is examined for "intellectual comfort", whilst the unregulated taste and densification of Chinese cities is analysed according to "performance", a criterion involving variables with debatable credibility: density, newness, shape, size, money etc.

In 2003, Content, a 544-page magazine-style book designed by &&& Creative and published by Koolhaas, gives an overview of the last decade of OMA projects including his designs for the Prada shops, the Seattle Public Library, a plan to save Cambridge from Harvard by rechanneling the Charles River, Lagos' future as Earth's third-biggest city, as well as interviews with Martha Stewart and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.

Volume Magazine
In 2005, Rem Koolhaas co-founded Volume Magazine together with Mark Wigley and Ole Bouman. Volume Magazine – the collaborative project by Archis (Amsterdam), AMO and C-lab (Columbia University NY) – is a dynamic experimental think tank devoted to the process of spatial and cultural reflexivity. It goes beyond architecture's definition of ‘making buildings’ and reaches out for global views on architecture and design, broader attitudes to social structures, and creating environments to live in. The magazine stands for a journalism which detects and anticipates, is proactive and even pre-emptive – a journalism which uncovers potentialities, rather than covering done deals.

Buildings and projects
In the late nineties he worked on the design for the new headquarters for Universal.

Indeed, online marketing and propaganda has been a hallmark of OMA's rise in the current century. It has also led to pointed criticism, such as the critique by New York Magazine critic Justin Davidson, who found the 2020 Guggenheim exhibition Countryside, the Future "mildly amusing if it weren’t such terrible waste — of attention, of gallery square footage, of resources, talent, and expertise. Bored with being an architect and building things, Koolhaas lets his fingertips graze important topics, genuine insights, and actual lives. He treats them all as ironic bric-a-brac, meaningless souvenirs of his meanderings through a fragile world. How frustrating that the Guggenheim couldn’t force a little more intellectual rigor on this romp."

Architecture, fashion, and theatre
With his Prada projects, Koolhaas ventured into providing architecture for the fleeting world of fashion and with celebrity-studded cachet: not unlike Garnier's Opera, the central space of Koolhaas' Beverly Hills Prada store is occupied by a massive central staircase, ostensibly displaying select wares, but mainly the shoppers themselves. The notion of selling a brand rather than marketing clothes was further emphasised in the Prada store on Broadway in Manhattan, New York, which had previously been owned by the Guggenheim: the museum signs were not removed during the outfitting of the new store, as if emphasizing the premises as a cultural institution. The Broadway Prada store opened in December 2001, cost €32 million to build, and has 2,300 square meters of retail space.

21st Century Projects

Probably the most costly and celebrated OMA projects of the new century were the massive Central China Television Headquarters Building in Beijing, China, and the new building for the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the equivalent of the NASDAQ in China.

In his design for the new CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2009), Koolhaas did not opt for the stereotypical skyscraper, often used to symbolise and landmark such government enterprises; he patented a "horizontal skyscraper" in the U.S. The building, popularly called "The Big Pants" by Beijing residents, was designed as a series of volumes which attempt to tie together the numerous departments onto the nebulous site, but also introduce routes (again, the concept of cross-programming) for the general public through the site, allowing them some degree of access to the production procedure. An unfortunate incident that highlighted the folly of the circulation scheme (no effective fire egress for people on the upper floors), was the construction fire that nearly destroyed the building and a nearby hotel in 2009.

Personal life
Koolhaas was previously married to Madelon Vriesendorp, an artist who is the mother of his two children, Charlie, a photographer, and Tomas, a filmmaker. Koolhaas divorced Vriesendorp in 2012. He has known his current partner Petra Blaisse, an interior and landscape designer since 1986.

Selected projects
Villa dall’Ava, (Saint-Cloud, 1991)
Nexus World Housing (Fukuoka, 1991)
Kunsthal (Rotterdam, 1992)
Euralille (Lille, 1994)
Educatorium (Utrecht, 1995)
Maison à Bordeaux (Bordeaux, 1998)
Embassy of the Netherlands (Berlin, 2003)
McCormick Tribune Campus Center (Chicago, 2003)
Seoul National University Museum of Art (Seoul, 2005) 
Seattle Central Library (Seattle, 2005)
Casa da Música (Porto, 2005)
Dee and Charles Wyly Theater (Dallas, 2009)
CCTV Headquarters, (Beijing, 2012)
De Rotterdam (Rotterdam, 2013)
Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow, 2014)
Qatar National Library (Doha, 2017)
Taipei Performing Arts Center (Taipei, 2022)

Bibliography
Project Japan. Metabolism Talks... (2011) (with Hans Ulrich Obrist) 
Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan (1978) 
S,M,L,XL (1995) 
Serpentine Gallery: 24 Hour Interview Marathon (2007) Living Vivre Leben (1998)Content (2004) 
 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2006''; Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, Germany 2008

Gallery

See also
Contemporary architecture
World Architecture Survey
List of architects
Koolhaas Houselife

References

External links

 Office for Metropolitan Architecture
 OMA official Facebook page (updated daily)
 OMA official Vimeo channel
 OMA portfolio on Archello.com
 Rem Koolhaas at Harvard University
 
 Urgency 2007: Rem Koolhaas and Peter Eisenman lectures, Canadian Centre for Architecture, June 8, 2007
 Rem Koolhaas in conversation with Mirko Zardini and Giovanna Borasi, Rotterdam, August 26, 2015, for the exhibition The Other Architect, Canadian Centre for Architecture 
 On Starchitecture
 Koolhaas at Harvard's Ecological Urbanism
 Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect (2008 Feature Documentary)
 Rem Koolhaas lecture "Russia for Beginners" at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art: September 15th, 2014
 Rem Koolhaas on Empty Canon

 
1944 births
20th-century Dutch architects
21st-century Dutch architects
Architectural theoreticians
Urban theorists
Deconstructivism
Postmodern architecture
Dutch non-fiction writers
Living people
Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning alumni
Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty
Dutch urban planners
Architects from Rotterdam
Pritzker Architecture Prize winners
Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal
Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Alumni of the Architectural Association School of Architecture
Honorary Fellows of the American Institute of Architects
"Do What's Good for Me" is a song recorded by Dutch Eurodance band 2 Unlimited, released in October 1995 as the first single from their greatest hits compilation album, Hits Unlimited. Co-written by Anita Dels and Ray Slijngaard, it was a notable hit in Europe, reaching the Top 10 in Finland and Spain.

Critical reception
Larry Flick from Billboard wrote, "The ongoing wave of pop-NRG dance acts enjoying radio prominence owes a massive debt to this ever-hot European duo for getting the party started. Sadly, the act has yet to achieve U.S. success à la such offspring as Real McCoy, but this jumpy li'l jam could easily change that. The bassline throbs infectiously, while the interplay of male rapping and female singing pops with palpable chemistry." Ross Jones from The Guardian deemed it "a powerhouse anthem of self-discovery, robo-bass, and skipping beats". A reviewer from Music Week rated the song three out of five, adding that "Anita and Ray go for a harder-edged techno sound, resulting in a less radio-friendly track than many of their recent releases." James Hamilton from the magazine's RM Dance Update called it a "synth stabbed squawker".

Chart performance
"Do What's God for Me" scored chart success in many European countries, peaking at number 3 in both Finland and Spain. It managed a respectable 17th place on the Canadian RPM singles chart, while also charting in the Top 20 in Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK. In the latter, it peaked at number 16 in its first week at the UK Singles Chart, on October 15, 1995. Additionally, the single was a Top 30 hit in Austria and Scotland, and a Top 40 hit in Sweden. In Australia, it only reached number 87.

Music video
The music video for "Do What's Good For Me" was directed by director Nigel Simpkiss and released in the UK in October 1995. It features Anita and Ray performing the song in a computer, on a website. Simpkiss also directed the music videos for "Let the Beat Control Your Body", "The Real Thing", "Here I Go" and "Nothing Like the Rain". "Do What's Good For Me" was uploaded to YouTube in July 2014, and as of September 2020, the video has got more than 140,000 views.

Track listing

 Canadian CD maxi
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Edit) (3:55)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Extended) (6:05)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Alex Party Remix) (5:08)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (X-Out Remix) (5:25)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Aural Pleasure Mix) (9:00)
 "Club Megamix" (9:34)

 European and Japanese CD maxi
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Edit) (3:49)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Extended) (6:03)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Alex Party Remix) (5:06)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (X-Out Remix) (5:22)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Aural Pleasure Mix) (8:58)
 "Club Megamix" (9:34)

 UK CD single no.1
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Radio Edit) (3:11)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Extended) (6:03)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (X-Out Remix) (5:22)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Alex Party Remix) (5:06)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Aural Pleasure Mix) (8:58)

 UK CD single no.2
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Radio Edit) (3:11)
 "2U Megamix" (6:04)
 "Club Megamix" (9:34)

 US CD maxi
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Edit) (3:49)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Extended) (6:03)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Alex Party Remix) (5:06)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (X-Out Remix) (5:22)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Aural Pleasure Mix) (8:58)

 7" single
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Edit) (3:49)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Alex Party Remix) (3:50)

 Belgian 12" maxi
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Alex Party Remix) (5:06)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (X-Out Remix) (5:22)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Aural Pleasure Mix) (8:58)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Extended) (6:03)

 Italian 12" maxi
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Extended) (6:03)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Edit) (3:49)
 "Club Megamix" (9:34)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Alex Party Remix) (5:06)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (X-Out Remix) (5:22)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Aural Pleasure Mix) (8:58)

 US 12" maxi
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Extended) (6:03)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Alex Party Remix) (5:06)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (X-Out Remix) (5:22)
 "Do What's Good For Me" (Aural Pleasure Mix) (8:58)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Kids Like You and Me

In the Netherlands, a re-recorded version of this track entitled "Kids Like You And Me" was released in order to promote awareness of homeless youth.  The music remained the same while new lyrics were composed incorporating the messages of homeless youth. It was not released in the United Kingdom.

Track listing
 CD single 
 "Kids Like You And Me" (Radio Edit) (3:49)
 "Kids Like You And Me" (Instrumental) (3:49)

References

1995 singles
2 Unlimited songs
1995 songs
Songs written by Jean-Paul De Coster
Songs written by Phil Wilde
Songs written by Ray Slijngaard
Songs written by Anita Doth
Byte Records singles
Pete Waterman Entertainment singles
Music videos directed by Nigel Simpkiss A long-term resident in the European Union is a person who is not a citizen of an EU country but has resided legally and continuously within its territory for five years with a means of support (i.e. without recourse to the social assistance system of the host country) and fulfills some further requirements, as defined in Directive 2003/109/EC. The status permits the holder some of the rights of free movement afforded to EU/EEA citizens in the participating countries; of the EU countries Denmark and Ireland (and, prior to its withdrawal, the United Kingdom) do not participate in implementing the Directive. The implementation of the directive is left to the participating countries, with some national variations in the requirements for and benefits of long-term resident status.

Participating countries
Countries participating in the implementation of the directive include: 
 Austria ()
 Belgium (, )
 Bulgaria ()
 Croatia ()
 Cyprus (Long term resident – EC)
 Czech Republic ()
 Estonia ()
 Finland (, )
 France ()
 Germany ()
 Greece ()
 Hungary ()
 Italy ()
 Latvia ()
 Lithuania ()
 Luxembourg ()
 Malta ()
 Netherlands ()
 Poland ()
 Portugal ()
 Romania ()
 Slovakia ()
 Slovenia ()
 Spain ()
 Sweden ()

Implementation by country

Czech Republic 
A person holding a permanent residence permit along with a legal status of “EU long-term resident” of another EU Member State (hereinafter referred to as “a resident of another EU member state”) is entitled to file an application for a long-term residence permit if he/she intends to temporarily reside in the Czech Republic for more than 3 months.

Finland
Holders of an eligible residence permit (excluding asylum) can after five years of residence apply for status as a long-term EU resident in Finland, providing they have not resided outside the country for more than six months at a time and ten months in total. This status can be withdrawn if the holder has continuously resided outside the EU for more than two years, or outside Finland for more than six years.

Those holding long-term EU resident status from another EU country wishing to reside in Finland may do so from that country or in Finland.

Netherlands
In order to acquire status as a long-term EU resident in the Netherlands, one must pass the civic integration exam and have five consecutive years residence on non-work permit separately () with the Employee Insurance Agency (). Additionally, status holders coming for employment will only require a work permit for the first 12 months, as opposed to the ordinary five years.

Sweden

Before 2019, the law was such that, in order to acquire status as a long-term EU resident in Sweden, one must have resided in Sweden continuously for five years on residence permits () and have a permanent residence permit (). Since 2019, a person who has stayed in Sweden for five years without interruption with a residence permit or "legally resident in another way" may apply for long-term resident status. This law change was made so that British citizens living in Sweden after Brexit would be able to apply for the status, because otherwise they would have been ineligible given they have lived in Sweden under right of residence, not with residence permits.

The person applying must also have a means of supporting themselves. However, time on visitor's residence permit or residence permit for studies, among others, cannot be counted towards this time.

Long-term EU residents moving to Sweden are required to apply for a residence permit if they stay for more than 90 days. They are however permitted to begin work or studies upon arrival, without waiting for a decision in such case. A work permit () is not required for a long-term EU resident, however a hiring certificate must be submitted for such residents applying on the grounds of employment.

Reception
Following the deadline for the introduction of a specific immigration status as a long-term resident of the European Union in 2006, the Directive was found to affect a relatively small percentage of the third-country nationals in most participating countries. Additionally, of these, few used their mobility rights within the EU.

Main reasons cited for lack of adoption are the following:
 the lack of information available about the LTR status among third-country nationals
 the lack of information available about the LTR status among national migration administrations
 the "competition" with national schemes:
 national long-term residence permits, and
 possibility to obtain EU citizenship in 5 years or shorter time in some countries
 the "competition" with the Blue Card (European Union)
 integration requirements

Main reasons cited for lack of intra-EU mobility for third-country nationals with LTR are the following:
 labour market restrictions and labour market tests in States different than those in which they originally resided
 administrative barriers
 recognition of degrees and diplomas
 integration requirements
 long-term resident permits issued in one EU country are exchanged to non-long-term resident permits in a new country 
 impossibility of cross-border work
 other forms of discrimination

Additional information
According to the chapter IV, Article 24 of the Directive, periodically the Commission reports to the European Parliament and to the Council on the application of this Directive in the Member States and proposes amendments as may be necessary. Reports provide information on specifics of application of the Directive in national legislation systems, as well as statistics of adoption of this type of residence permit.

There were 2,861,306 long-term residents by the end of 2018, with 69.8% of them with permit issued by Italy.

Brexit and UK nationals with long-term EU residence 
Long-term EU residence is what is recommended by Commission to be granted to UK nationals after Brexit, who lived in EU countries for more than 5 years. The rights obtained by UK nationals after converting to third-country nationals with LTR status would be significantly reduced in comparison to the set of rights exercised by them previously while being EU citizens.

See also
 Blue Card (European Union)

References

European nationality law
Residency
Foreign relations of the European Union