Koolhaas curses about competition

Rem Koolhaas stated in the British magazine Building Design on Friday, January 5, 2007, against the way international architectural competitions are organized and called on his colleagues to boycott such methods. The reason for such statements was the background of the competition for the Gazprom headquarters (archiweb 10.11.06, ČTK 1.12.2006) in St. Petersburg. In protest, architects Norman Foster, Rafael Viñoly, and Kisho Kurokawa left the competition jury at that time. Koolhaas's OMA, Herzog & de Meuron, Jean Nouvel, Massimiliano Fuksas, and Daniel Libeskind were among the shortlisted competing offices. The remaining members then selected a proposal from RMJM online. Koolhaas labeled the way of competing as “abhorrent.” “Our resources and ideas are drained by this system – without any benefit. It is remarkable how easily the best minds in their profession are maneuvered into positions of weakness by this competitive system when they should be in positions of strength.” Koolhaas would like to “convince the world that this way of competing is useless and together we should find more effective forms of competition among ourselves.” Link>