XL in Asia: A Dialogue between Rem Koolhaas and Masao Miyoshi

Abstract

Approaching near cult status in some circles, Rem Koolhaas is one of the most exciting architects and urban theorists in the world today. Author of two much discussed books, Delirious New York (1978; 1994) and S,M,L,XL (with designer Bruce Mao, 1996), Koolhaas thrives on paradoxes and contradictions. Both books sparked wide-ranging reactions--Delirious New York because of its sharp-edged analysis of New York's defining culture of congestion, and S,M,L,XL for, among other things, its unabashed espousal of bigness and tabula rasa for the generic cities and landscapes of the future, now most typically seen in Asia. These bold ideas, which Koolhaas sometimes calls fiction, are integrated into blueprints and put into practice. Headquartered in the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam, Koolhaas has recently been building at an intensifying pace in Lille, Seoul, Utrecht, Rotterdam, the Hague, Fukuoka, Paris, Hollywood, and elsewhere, often receiving rave reviews. He also teaches at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. Masao Miyoshi teaches literature at the University of California, San Diego. Author of Off-Center (1991) and other books, he has been increasingly concerned with transnational corporatism and its impact on culture, including architecture and the university. This dialogue was occasioned by Miyoshi's brief encounter with Koolhaas in Seoul and his response to the latter's books. The conversation took place in New York City in the fall of 1996 with Sunyoung Lee, associate editor of MUlE 2, as its organizer and coparticipant.