Interviewees and Essay Contributors

Rem Koolhaas

Rem Koolhaas founded OMA in 1975 together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp. He graduated from the Architectural Association in London and in 1978 published Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. He co-heads the work of both OMA and AMO, the research branch of OMA, operating in areas beyond the realm of architecture. His built work includes the Axel Springer Campus in Berlin (2020), Fondazione Prada in Milan (2015/2018), the headquarters for China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing (2012), Casa da Musica in Porto (2005), and Seattle Central Library (2004). Koolhaas directed the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, is a professor at Harvard University, and curated Countryside: The Future (2020), an exhibition about the non-urban areas around the globe that opened in February 2020 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

David Gianotten

David Gianotten is the Managing Partner – Architect of OMA. He oversees the overall organizational and financial management, business strategy, and growth of OMA in all markets. David currently leads the design and construction of projects including Amsterdam’s Bajes Kwartier – the conversion of a large 1960s prison complex into a new neighborhood; and VDMA – the transformation of an unused site with industrial heritage in Eindhoven. He has led the Taipei Performing Arts Center project since the competition phase in 2008 until building completion in 2022. He is also responsible for the design and realization of the Potato Head Studios—a resort in Bali (2020), WA Museum Boola Bardip in Perth (2020), and White Cube LIRCAEI in Lusanga (2018). David joined OMA in 2008, launched OMA’s Hong Kong office in 2009, and became partner in 2010. He led OMA’s portfolio in the Asia-Pacific region for seven years.

Chia-Ju Lin

A graduate of the Department of Architecture at Tamkang University and Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Chia-Ju Lin is a Registered Architect in New York State and Taiwan. She is currently OMA’s Project Director in Taiwan. She is an associate professor at the Graduate Institute of Architecture, NYCU and Tamkang University, a founding member and councilor at the Women in Architecture

Taiwan, and member of the Urban Planning Commission, Taipei City Government. She is dedicated to subjects including urban design, architectural education, improvements in the profession, and gender equality. She is active in the international architectural discipline as a speaker, critic, curator, and writer.

1975

Elia, Zoe Zenghelis

MadelonVriesendorp

Kris Yao is the founder of KRIS YAO | ARTECH. He obtained a Bachelor of Architecture from Tunghai University in 1975, and a Master of Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley in 1978.In 2014, Mr. Yao was awarded the prestigious Honorary Fellowship from the American Institute of Architects. The AIA praised him as an architect who “demonstrates his humanity with the development of physical elements that hold true to human emotion and conditions, cultural and historical context, and a sense of scale and place. His architecture has a poetic nature, using his native eastern aesthetic and spirituality with a sense of natural light, interplay of surfaces and forms and executing all with a high level of innovation and professionalism.” His diverse architectural works are often published in international architectural magazines. He has also participated in many international architectural exhibitions, including the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Willy YungWei Yu is a Senior Partner in KRIS YAO | ARTECH. He received a Bachelor of Architecture from Tunghai University in 1975, and a Master of Architecture with a major in Architectural Administration, from the University of California, Berkeley in 1980. He joined KRIS YAO | ARTECH in 1990. Willy supervises the firm’s overall management and contracts. He is also the technical director in detail design, construction documentation and administration. He establishes KRIS YAO | ARTECH’s architecture resource platform, where lectures, seminars and construction site visits are offered to colleagues, even to clients or the general public. This program allows for the sharing of information on architecture and construction; giving various professionals more opportunities to learn from each other.Willy is an AIA member and is elected as a FAIA in 2017. He is also a registered architect in both California and Taiwan.

Michel Cova holds an engineering degree (Arts et Métiers- France).

Throughout his studies Michel took part in numerous musical theater projects, which enabled him to obtain his first professional position as TNP (Popular National Theater) technical director assistant, preceding several other positions in this field. He creates his own studio in 1992 “Ducks Sceno” which emerges as one of the few creative resources for the design of scenography and allowed him to collaborate with some of the most important architects in the realization of ambitious cultural projects: Casa da Musica, CCTV TVCC, Philharmonie de Paris, Le Louvre Abu Dhabi, Taipei Performing Arts Center.

Petra Blaisse is Inside Outside’s founder and lead designer and works in a multitude of creative areas including interior design, landscape architecture, exhibition and textile design. Blaisse worked from 1978-1986 for the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in the department of Applied Arts, after an education in the visual arts. From 1986, Blaisse worked as a freelance exhibition designer for organizations including the Rotterdamse Kunst Stichting and OMA. She created her first large-scale theatre curtain for the Netherlands Dance Theatre in the Hague in 1987, and has realized a series of award-winning art installations, curtains, gardens and exhibitions. In the early 90s, Blaisse formed a landscape team within her practice. Since then, the studio has – parallel to her numerous interior interventions - a broad range of gardens, public parks and landscape masterplans to its credit.

Theo Raijmakers started as a structural engineer at the Dutch research organization TNO. He was stationed at the Technical University of Eindhoven to work together with the structural department of the faculty of Building Technology. A TNO colleague, Renz van Luxemburg, already worked together with the acoustic department of the same faculty. Theo soon was involved in their acoustic projects and he got fascinated by the complexity of cultural buildings and the challenge to find groundbreaking acoustic design solutions. Together with Renz he made the acoustic design of several large projects, among them the Taipei Performing Arts Center building, one of his favorites. Now he working as an acoustic consultant at Level Acoustics & Vibration in Eindhoven.

Chas is an Associate Principal at Arup with 25 years of international experience in a wide range of building engineering design projects in Singapore, China, East Asia and the UK, including the award-winning CCTV New Headquarters in Beijing, Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Taipei Performing Arts Centre and Changi Airport Terminal 5. With a structural engineering background, his specialist expertise is in multidisciplinary solutions for complex building projects, with a strong emphasis on integrated design and increasing interest in sustainable solutions.Based in Singapore since 2017, and in Asia for nearly 20 years, he has worked with private and public clients in a wide range of sectors during his career and has led collaborations with major architectural practices including OMA, Büro Ole Scheeren and BIG. This experience has provided Chas with an excellent understanding of the wider challenges affecting urbanization in the region.

Paolo Caracini is an architect, with 25 years experience in the fields of architecture, research and urban planning, who has been practising in Europe, Asia, Australia and Middle East. Paolo is the the founder of ASA (asinglearch) an architectural and design office based in Milano operating on multiple scales projects ranging from event design and interiors to architecture. Paolo was formerly an Associate at OMA, in Hong Kong from 2008 to 2015 and in Rotterdam Netherlands from 2015 to 2017. Paolo has led the design teams for the Scalo Farini Masterplan in Milano, the Feyenoord Stadium City in Rotterdam and MTR Stations Design Guidelines in Hong Kong. Paolo worked as a Project Architect for the construction of the Taipei Performing Art Centre, Shanghai LuJiaZui Exhibition Centre. Along with the architectural practice, Paolo engages in research in the fields of urban studies and architecture. He holds a PhD in urban design and taught Architectural Design in Italian and Hong Kong Universities.

English photographer Chris Stowers has travelled and worked in over 70 countries. His pictures have appeared in most major newspapers and news magazines, including The Economist, Forbes, Newsweek, Time, National Geographic Traveller, Businessweek, Le Monde, The New York Times, LA Times, The Independent and The Guardian. Represented by Panos Pictures Photo Agency, in London, he specialises in architectural and industrial photography, portraiture, and reportage of contemporary social issues. He has photographed many travel guidebooks for Insight Guides and Dorling Kindersley. Most recently, he co-hosted the hit TV documentary Secrets of the Raknus Selu Trail, on AXN Channel.