Content - Reviews

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"A showcase of Koolhaas work from 1993 to 2003, mixed with essays, interviews, and visual hot flashes, this book has a new organizational conceit: a march around the globe. … You may want to give the guy himself a poke for his pomposity, but much can be recommended on this lively tour: a chat with Venturi and Scott Brown about today`s Las Vegas, an analysis of OMA`s train-wreck collaboration with Herzog & de Meuron on an unbuilt hotel for Ian Schrager; the observation that Mies never really embodied the "less is more" mantra. "Maybe it is a law that dogmas are defined by those that are most prone to violate them," Koolhaas proposes. The busy design by Simon Brown and Jon Link is kind of a train wreck, too. In a good way." I.D., New York United States
"Equal parts manifesto, highbrow culture zine and modern-day almanac, Content is Koolhaas` latest bricolage. It chronicles the past seven years in the life of his architecture firm slash think tank, OMA-AMO. The book reads like a director`s commentary-at times beguiling, at others abstruse and overly reflexive. In it you`ll find conceptual musings developed for Wired, elaborate charts and graphs tracking geopolitical trends, and blown-out urban imagery. If you liked Koolhaas` S, M, L, XL, look into this less massive, more affordable sequel." ReadyMade, Berkeley United States
"Content takes and gives it both ways. Stylistically, it cocks a snoot and flings a saliva-smeared middle finger to minimalist taste-mongering. But although it assumes the format and some of the content of a delinquent magazine, Content still fulfils the grown-up analytical ambitions of a book." Tank Magazine, London United Kingdom
"Rich in colour, diagrams and pixellated iconography, this is the opposite of a typical monograph and respite from over-packaging and beautification. My sense is that the ideal context for the book is in the magazine pocket of an international aeroplane flight seat - a cross between news, engineering, building, reporting and promotion." Monument Magazine, Melbourne Australia
"It offers dozens of interviews and feature stories, with topics ranging from Martha Stewart to a Chicago housing project, interspersed with ads for Prada, Gucci, and others. Along the way, the authors also settle a few scores. But the main attractions are the looks at his projects from the past several years, including the scuttled ones. Scoops include never-before-published renderings of his over-the-top plans for the Whitney, which will probably make most residents of the Upper East Side relieved the project never went forward." W, New York United States
"Top marks for getting this past the commissioning editor. One can only imagine the pitch - it's a book, but it looks like a magazine. It's going to be full of some interesting but fairly hardcore pieces on architecturally related topics, but thanks to designers it bears an uncanny resemblance to a certain small but perfectly formed men's magazine." Grafik, London United Kingdom
"This book is full of ideas. The 'Ice Wit' writing style of Koolhaas in such texts as junk space and Crib-death continue to strengthen his role as scriptwriter to architectures' alter ego. This book is a plea to extend the intelligence of architects beyond the realms of building and reveals painfully the dilemma of architectures' complicity in the market economy." Perspective, Belfast United Kingdom
"Geist ist geil ... Schnäppchenjäger aufgepasst! Hier ist ein Buch, das ganz viel tollen Inhalt zum sensationellen Preis bietet! Wo es so was gibt? Ausgerechnet bei Rem Koolhaas, der mit OMA, dem Office for Metropolitan Architecture, eines der renommiertesten Architekturbüros der Welt betreibt. Doch der Niederländer war schon immer mehr als ein bloßer Baukünstler, und sein soziologischer und philosophischer Blick auf die Welt hat schon diverse kultige Publikationen hervorgebracht. Auch Content hält nicht nur Rückschau auf die eigene Arbeit, sondern befasst sich auf eine höchst spannende Weise mit der politischen und ästhetischen Dimension der globalen Verstädterung ... Was nach außen wie billiger Trash daherkommt, bietet innen eine überwältigende Fülle visueller und intellektueller Anregungen für all diejenigen, die wie Rem Koolhaas ihre Augen vor dem Zustand unseres Planeten nicht verschließen wollen." Page, Hamburg Germany
"...a hybrid publication, fusing tabloid and monograph, satire and social realism." Architecture Review Australia
"...a cross between an IKEA catalogue and a telephone directory.( ) It is crazy but it just might work." The Architects Journal, London United Kingdom
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