Office for Metropolitan Architecture

The Office for Metropolitan Architecture, generally known as OMA, is an international architecture, urbanism, and research practice founded in 1975 by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, Greek architect Elia Zenghelis, and artists Madelon Vriesendorp and Zoe Zenghelis. The practice emerged from a highly conceptual design culture associated with the Architectural Association in London, where Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis worked together. Its early projects treated the city as a field of conflict, congestion, movement, and competing programs rather than as a stable visual composition. Many of these early works were deliberately unbuilt, but they established OMA’s reputation through competitions, drawings, publications, and theoretical propositions. OMA works across architecture, urban planning, landscape and public-realm design, interiors, exhibition design, and cultural strategy. Its projects range from houses and housing developments to libraries, museums, performing-arts venues, offices, retail complexes, educational buildings, transport-related plans, and entire urban districts. The practice is particularly associated with buildings whose organization is expressed through unusual massing, intersecting circulation routes, large public interiors, and deliberate juxtapositions of different uses. Rather than applying a single recognizable style, OMA has generally approached each commission through analysis of its social, economic, political, and spatial conditions. The firm’s first major realized commissions included the Netherlands Dance Theatre in The Hague, the IJ-Plein urban plan in Amsterdam, a police station in Almere, and housing projects in Amsterdam and Berlin. During the 1990s, OMA expanded its international profile through projects such as Kunsthal Rotterdam, Nexus Housing in Fukuoka, Euralille in northern France, and Maison à Bordeaux. Euralille demonstrated the practice’s interest in infrastructure and metropolitan transformation, linking a high-speed rail interchange with offices, public facilities, commercial development, and civic space. Maison à Bordeaux became notable for a mechanically moving platform that enabled a wheelchair-using client to move between the villa’s levels. In the 2000s and 2010s, OMA completed several internationally prominent cultural and civic buildings. These include Seattle Central Library, Casa da Música in Porto, the Netherlands Embassy in Berlin, the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Fondazione Prada in Milan, Qatar National Library, and the Taipei Performing Arts Center. The projects differ greatly in form and program, but share an emphasis on making complex public activities legible and spatially dynamic. OMA has also designed retail and hospitality projects, including work connected with Prada, Galleria in Gwanggyo, nhow Amsterdam RAI Hotel, and Potato Head Studios in Bali. Research and communication are central to OMA’s identity. In 1998, Rem Koolhaas and Reinier de Graaf established AMO, a complementary think tank focused on work beyond conventional building design. AMO has worked on exhibitions, publications, branding, institutional strategy, energy planning, preservation, technology, and geopolitical or urban research for clients and cultural institutions. Its projects have included work for Prada, Universal Studios, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Harvard University, Condé Nast, Heineken, IKEA, and Volkswagen, as well as the Roadmap 2050 study on a low-carbon European economy. OMA operates internationally from offices including Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and locations in Australia. The practice is currently led by partners Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and managing partner and architect David Gianotten. OMA’s positioning combines high-end architectural services with academic inquiry, competition work, strategic planning, and cultural production. Its influence extends beyond completed buildings through books, exhibitions, teaching, visual research, and speculative projects.

OMA developed from collaboration between Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis at London’s Architectural Association in the early 1970s. Their early projects, including Exodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture, and City of the Captive Globe, were speculative projects that examined urban density, segregation, infrastructure, and the psychological effects of the modern metropolis. These works were not intended primarily as conventional building commissions; they functioned as theoretical instruments and helped establish the intellectual basis for OMA’s later practice. The office was formally established in 1975 by Koolhaas, Zenghelis, Madelon Vriesendorp, and Zoe Zenghelis. OMA’s entry for the 1978 competition for a new Dutch parliament building in The Hague, developed with Zaha Hadid, was among the winning proposals but was not commissioned. During the 1980s, the practice gained attention through a mixture of built work, urban studies, and competition proposals. Its early realized projects included the Netherlands Dance Theatre in The Hague, the IJ-Plein master plan in Amsterdam, a police station in Almere, Byzantium housing in Amsterdam, Checkpoint Charlie housing in Berlin, and Villa Dall’Ava in Paris. The firm’s numerous unbuilt competition projects were also important because they circulated widely in architectural publications and reinforced its reputation for challenging conventional planning assumptions. During the 1990s, OMA moved into larger cultural and metropolitan commissions. Kunsthal Rotterdam demonstrated how exhibitions, movement, structure, and public circulation could be integrated into a compact cultural building. Nexus Housing extended the practice’s work into Japan, while Euralille transformed a major rail interchange in northern France into a mixed-use business and civic district. Maison à Bordeaux explored the relationship between domestic space, disability, technology, and movement through a central mobile platform connecting the home’s levels. The twenty-first century brought a sequence of major international buildings. Seattle Central Library, Casa da Música in Porto, and the Netherlands Embassy in Berlin established OMA as a major designer of civic and cultural institutions. Work in Asia included the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Further projects included the Fondazione Prada in Milan, Qatar National Library, the Taipei Performing Arts Center, Galleria in Gwanggyo, and the WA Museum Boola Bardip in Perth. OMA also expanded into hospitality, education, retail, offices, and mixed-use developments. OMA’s scope is broader than conventional architectural practice. In 1998, Koolhaas and Reinier de Graaf founded AMO as a research and design counterpart concerned with exhibitions, publishing, institutional strategy, branding, energy, preservation, and broader cultural or political questions. AMO’s activities have included exhibitions for international cultural events, work for commercial and institutional clients, and studies such as Roadmap 2050. This combination of building design and research has allowed OMA to operate simultaneously as an architectural office, urban think tank, publisher, exhibition producer, and strategic consultant. The practice remains headquartered in Rotterdam and maintains an international network of offices, including New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia. Its current leadership is shared among eight partners: Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and managing partner David Gianotten. OMA’s historical significance rests not only on individual buildings but also on its method: using research, diagrams, competition work, writing, and built commissions to test how architecture can respond to increasingly complex metropolitan conditions.

• 2022

  Taipei Performing Arts Center opens

  [1]Office for Metropolitan Architectureen.wikipedia.org

  The Taipei Performing Arts Center opened after OMA’s winning design was developed and constructed.

• 2017

  Qatar National Library completed

  [1]Office for Metropolitan Architectureen.wikipedia.org

  OMA completed Qatar National Library in Doha as a major civic and cultural institution.

• 2009

  Taipei Performing Arts Center competition

  [1]Office for Metropolitan Architectureen.wikipedia.org

  OMA won the competition to design Taipei’s new performing-arts center.

• 2005

  Casa da Música and Netherlands Embassy completed

  [1]Office for Metropolitan Architectureen.wikipedia.org

  Two major OMA cultural and diplomatic projects were completed in Porto and Berlin; the Berlin embassy received the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture.

• 1999

  Seattle Central Library competition

  [1]Office for Metropolitan Architectureen.wikipedia.org

  OMA won the competition to design Seattle’s new central library.

• 1998

  AMO is established

  [1]Office for Metropolitan Architectureen.wikipedia.org

  Rem Koolhaas and Reinier de Graaf founded AMO as a research-oriented counterpart to OMA.

• 1994

  Euralille completed

  [1]Office for Metropolitan Architectureen.wikipedia.org

  OMA completed the principal phase of Euralille, a large business and civic development organized around high-speed rail infrastructure.

• 1992

  Kunsthal Rotterdam completed

  [1]Office for Metropolitan Architectureen.wikipedia.org

  OMA completed a major exhibition building in Rotterdam that integrated circulation, structure, and multiple gallery environments.

• 1987

  Netherlands Dance Theatre completed

  [1]Office for Metropolitan Architectureen.wikipedia.org

  The completed building in The Hague became OMA’s first major realized project and brought international attention to its design ideas.

• 1978

  Dutch parliament competition

  [1]Office for Metropolitan Architectureen.wikipedia.org

  OMA’s competition entry for a new Dutch parliament building was selected among the winning proposals but was not ultimately commissioned.

• 1975

  OMA is founded

  [1]Office for Metropolitan Architectureen.wikipedia.org

  Koolhaas, Elia Zenghelis, Madelon Vriesendorp, and Zoe Zenghelis formally established the Office for Metropolitan Architecture.

• 1972

  Exodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture

  [1]Office for Metropolitan Architectureen.wikipedia.org

  Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis developed an influential speculative project proposing a monumental linear intervention through London.

A globally operating, research-led architecture and urbanism practice positioned at the intersection of experimental design, cultural production, metropolitan planning, and strategic consultancy.

• Architecture services · 1975

  Architecture

  OMA designs buildings across cultural, civic, educational, residential, commercial, hospitality, office, retail, and infrastructure-related sectors. Its architectural work is often characterized by programmatic complexity, unconventional massing, prominent circulation systems, and a close relationship between building form and metropolitan context.

• Urbanism · 1975

  Urban planning and urban design

  The practice works at district and metropolitan scales, combining land-use planning, infrastructure, public space, civic programming, and development strategy. Euralille and the IJ-Plein plan illustrate OMA’s interest in using major transport and urban systems as catalysts for broader transformation.

• Research and consultancy · 1998

  AMO research and strategy

  AMO produces research, exhibitions, publications, institutional strategies, branding work, energy studies, preservation proposals, and other projects that extend beyond conventional architectural commissions. It enables the OMA ecosystem to address cultural, commercial, technological, and geopolitical questions through design research.

• Cultural services · 1975

  Exhibition and cultural design

  OMA and AMO design exhibitions, galleries, cultural programs, and interpretive environments. This work includes projects for museums, biennales, design institutions, and commercial cultural settings, often using spatial sequencing and visual research to communicate complex subjects.

• 2011OMA/Progress exhibition

  United Kingdom

  The Barbican Art Gallery presented a major exhibition examining OMA’s projects, methods, and evolving architectural research.

  Outcome. The exhibition brought a broad survey of OMA’s work to a major UK cultural venue.

  Source
• 2001Barcode European flag proposal

  European Union

  Rem Koolhaas and OMA proposed a multicolored 'Barcode' flag that combined the national colors of European Union member states into a single vertical composition. The concept was intended to accommodate future enlargement more flexibly than the fixed-star design.

  Outcome. The proposal was used publicly during Austria’s 2006 presidency of the Council of the European Union and was later adapted as membership changed.

  Source

• 2009

  Taipei Performing Arts Center design selectedProduct launch

  Background

  Taipei organized an international competition for a new performing-arts complex.

  Action taken

  OMA won the competition and developed the design for the center, which later opened in 2022.

  Aftermath

  The project became one of OMA’s major completed cultural buildings in Asia.

  Source

• 1998

  Establishment of AMOStrategy

  Background

  OMA sought a dedicated platform for work involving research, exhibitions, publishing, branding, energy planning, and institutional strategy rather than only conventional building commissions.

  Action taken

  Rem Koolhaas and Reinier de Graaf founded AMO as a think tank operating alongside OMA.

  Aftermath

  AMO broadened the practice’s activities into cultural production, strategic consulting, research, and public debate.

  Source

1. 1Office for Metropolitan Architectureen.wikipedia.org
2. 2OMA official websiteoma.com