After joining the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in 1996, Reinier was project director for De Rotterdam, a major mixed-use development on the banks of one of the world’s largest harbours. As Partner of OMA he is responsible for a number of projects in Europe and the Middle East. His current works include the commission for the redevelopment of the Commonwealth Institute site in London, master plans for the White City area of London and the Bovisa quarter of Milan; a harbour redevelopment in Riga and the first contemporary art museum for Latvia, also in Riga. In the middle-east his projects include several master plans in Dubai, including Waterfront City, Kuwait, and Ras-Al-Khaimah, and buildings in Dubai and Saudi Arabia.
Reinier supervises the work of AMO, the research and design studio established by Rem Koolhaas in 1998 as a counterpart to the architectural practice. AMO applies architectural thinking to issues and opportunities beyond the conventional borders of architecture and urbanism. Currently AMO is working for the Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg) and for fashion house Prada. In addition it is engaged in studies for the European Union and various OMA projects. AMO’s resume includes work for Universal Studios, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Harvard University, Condé Nast, Heineken, and Ikea. Most recently AMO did an in-depth study of the urbanization of the cities along the Gulf resulting in an exhibition during the Venice Biennale 2006 and two publications.
Prior to working at OMA Reinier de Graaf worked for architecture firms in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. He holds an architecture diploma from Delft University and a master degree in architecture from the Berlage Institute. Reinier de Graaf lectures frequently in the academic and professional realm.
Abstract: The merging of urbanism and marketing.
Once urban plans were designed to accommodate the masses, today the masses have to be seduced. If 25 years ago urban plans were still produced to cater to an actual demographic necessity – a more or less delayed response to a more or less urgent need, today urban plans are designed to attract the very population they are planning for.
During the last thirty years, almost anywhere in the world, the initiative to build the city has been transferred to the private sector. The discipline of urbanism now must give shape to developments whilst at the same time it finds itself entirely at the mercy of the market to make those developments happen.
Rather than organizing and giving form to a known quantum of clearly defined uses, the task at hand becomes the accommodation of an imagined future: to pre-empt an urban experience while the precise substance of that experience remains as of yet undefined. The primary challenge is to be vague and explicit at the same time.
The consequences of this shift have largely left the profession of urbanism in limbo. It is as though the ethic of thorough analysis and accurate planning has become worthless overnight. In its place have come advertisement slogans and marketability. Renderings precede plans, the sale of land precedes the planning of infrastructure, the image precedes the substance… for every engineer there are a hundred sales representatives.
