Architect Rem Koolhaas on a mission to preserve historic buildings and the past
Pritzker award winner who designed CCTV headquarters in Beijing avoids creating dramatic new shapes and retains traces of history when renovating old structures and redefining their use
Pritzker prize-winning architect Rem Koolhaas is on a mission to preserve the past, even when it comes to a decidedly grim and derelict skeleton of a Soviet-era building in Moscow's Gorky Park. In doing so, he is redefining the way we think about the reuse of old buildings.
"At the back of my mind was how radical the act of preservation is," Koolhaas explains as we walk through the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art the day before its opening last month.
The late 1960s, two-storey, 50,000 sq ft structure started as a 1,200-seat canteen-style restaurant complete with high ceilings, tiled walls and concrete floors.
Koolhaas, who visited Moscow as a journalist in his early 20s, saw the restaurant in its heyday and recalls its monumental interiors and utilitarian style.
"There is something incredibly generous about Soviet architecture," he says. "It has a scale in terms of receiving the public that we just don't do anymore."
Koolhaas was so inspired by his visit to Russia that he decided to study architecture, before going on to design a series of memorable museums, theatres, boutiques and libraries around the world.
