CRONOCAOS: SIDE-EFFECTS OF SPACE CONSERVATION BY REM KOOLHAAS(OMA)

“The various elements of this exhibition attempt to show the wrenching simultaneity of preservation and destruction that is destroying any sense of the linear evolution of time  and propelling us into a period of CRONOCAOS” – OMA  Cronocaos Exhibition (Extension of the New Museum)  on Bowery. Image by Dawn Elardo.

By DAWN ELARDO
During the Festival of New Ideas for The New City, we were invited to a press preview to hear architect, theorist, Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at Harvard Graduate School, and Founder of OMA (The Officer for Metropolitan Architecture), Rem Koohaas present his recent theory of Cronocaos.  

MONOCLE’s News Report on the Architecture Biennale – from OMA.

Rem Koohaas giving his preview lecture on Cronocaos at the New Museum Extension on Bowery, NY. Image by Dawn Elardo for The NewsGallery.

Koohaas, the former professor of Zaha Hadid, also awarded the Golden Lion for the lifetime achievement in architecture award at the last Venice Biennale (August, 2010; see Monocle’s video [above] mention the Dutch architect’s involved plan to help reinvent city of Venice), where he (and OMA) first publicly introduced their philosophy on architectural conservation: Cronocaos. 

“Embeded in huge waves of development, which seems to transform the planet at an ever accelerating speed, there is another kind of transformation at work: an area of the world declared immutable through various regimes of preservation is growing exponentially.  A huge section of our world, (about 12 percent) is now off limits, submitted to regimes we don’t know, have not thought through, cannot influence.  At this moment of surreptitious apotheosis, preservation does note quite know what to do with its new empire.”- OMA

Wrapped in these said statements is the epitome of the architect/theorist’s ethos on preserving space. Walking in with ease into the allotted gallery of the New Museum (just a few doors down from the main building), everyone immediately became star-stunned at the globally renowned and famous architect who detests the idea of starchitects himself–an architect at heart, but an academic in thought.  

The room naturally gathered towards the man whose ideas we’d been contemplating within the hour.  Koolhaas does in fact have a coolness to his demeanor.  He spoke passionately on his philosophy of societies’ conservation standards (or as he might imply: non-standards), and how our practices have evolved through time based on whatever governs the western culture in that given time.  

“Look at this very neighborhood this gallery is standing on, Bowery for example,” the urban planner in him noted as the perfect example of being stuck in Cronocaos.  Most of NoHo (which Koolhaas refers to as the white cube), is still currently undergoing a phase between its one-time-previous-self (a kitchen supplies store center still somewhat intermixed with downtown’s punk movement territory) and gentrification (the white cube of galleries, high-end shops and restaurants, and luxury apartments).  “This is a process that we have arrested, temporarily, in this space: half preserved, half renovated–a fake standoff between authenticity and gentrification.  This is the phase of Cronocaos,” declared the OMA Founder.

The soft-but-highly-dignified-spoken architect made the entire gallery a very hyper alert listener–so as we wouldn’t miss a word of this highly dense conversation–targeting and addressing relevant spacial projects currently being implemented or at least planned around the globe.  Koolhaas, for example has been commissioned to help solve and designate spatial issues in Venice, Beijing, and Paris, among many others. 

The theoretical-urban-planner has never denied his predisposition to seizing an opportunity: to rebuild and redefine–and most of all, not to be blinded by conservation for conservation’s sake.  

In his interview with Charlie Rose post September 11, 2001, Koolhaas (who prides himself as a New York City resident) admitted, “I like the future not the past.” Although Koolhaas understands fully well that one must consider the past enable to create the future–in the same interview, the “academitect,” candidly expressed some disappointment with how New York responded to the spatial aftermath of 9/11–hoping that the tragic event would give birth to a newly revitalized, regenerated city–and that the response would’ve been more of a rebirth of Kool, rather than fervently honoring what was. 

“Ultimately, I’m an architect,” Koolhaas retorted to a slew of political questions Rose had thrown at him as the heated discussion had spun from governmental structures (in the States versus Europe), to Europe’s point of view of America.  The architect believes that conservation of space should ultimately be left omnipotent to the architect–mainly because he sees architects as “unapologetic about modernity thereby, enabled to preserve the tradition of pro-creation.”  And ultimately, Koolhaas sees the challenge at hand as: not how we can conserve to serve the past, but how we can preserve without disturbing the future–and most of all, how we can resolve the state of purgatorio he refers to as Cronocaos. 

Have a watch at our mini-slideshow to get a glimpse of Cronocaos on Bowery.  (All featured images are by Dawn Elardo).  For more information on the exhibition, see below.

Cronocaos 
Opened to the public on May 7 – June 5.  
The exhibition takes place at the 
New Museum’s 3,600-squarefoot, 
partially renovated, ground-floor 
space at 231 Bowery.

Browse Rem Koolhaas Books