The Generic City
In light of this Rem Koolhaas’s article ‘the Generic City’ suddenly becomes an important literary effort. Koolhaas has, unlike many contemporary writers, has looked at a world that has whole heartedly embraced both capitalism and globalization; in short takes the ground realities into consideration and gives us a sort of ‘urban manifesto’, if one may, of this possible ‘worst case scenario’. The thesis endeavors to deconstruct the mix of ideas that constitute Koolhaas’s rhetoric on urbanism. The aim here is to study each of the themes that are revealed from a close examination of Koolhaas’s writings, and attempt to understand and test Koolhaas’s ideas with writings of other theorists and case studies. The end result is an attempt to understand whether ‘The Generic City,’ in fact serves as a manifesto for the contemporary city, furthermore to understand whether a notable critic like Koolhaas has any theoretical validity.
Architecture,
Theory / Essay,
Socialism / Communism / Capitalism