Speaking at a press conference following the announcement, Koolhaas promised to ‘take a fresh look at the fundamental elements of architecture – used by any architect, anywhere, anytime – to see if we can discover something new about architecture’.
An official statement released by the Biennale describes Koolhaas, who won the Pritzker Prize in 2000, as ‘one of the most significant personalities among the architects of our time’.
Regarded as one of the greatest and most controversial of contemporary architects, Koolhaas a partner in the firm OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture), whose projects include the headquarters for China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing and Rothschild Bank in London.
