STATEMENT:Architecture & Environment

While a few years ago none was concerned with the environment and the implications of the irrational use of natural resources, today almost every Great Museum or institution is organising: exhibitions, events, workshops on the subject, which is not only important but burning!!! The most interesting however is not the relationship of art and environment, because this is a relationship most innocent and certainly much less affects much less the environment, but the relationship between Architecture and the Environment and the way Architects have managed Nature and the Environment Globally. As you have detected, I appreciate and respect the Japanese Architects more than anybody else, because, for them the Environment plays the most important role and create buildings in perfect harmony with the environment and its surroundings. The occasion of today’s Statement is the exhibition “Countryside: Future of the World” at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York conceived by the famous architect Rem Koolhaas and Samir Bantal (Director of AMO*), the video uploaded by the Museum, as well as Koolhaas’ own statements on the subject: “The fact that more than 50 percent of the world’s population now lives in cities has become an excuse to ignore the countryside” says Koolhaas and continues “I have long been fascinated by the transformation of the city, but since looking at the countryside more closely in recent years, I have been surprised by the intensity of change taking place there. The story of this transformation is largely untold, and it is particularly meaningful to present it in one of the world’s great museums in one of the world’s densest cities”. These are supported by the most famous architect of the planet, who is a pop idol in his field. And makes me wonder if this exhibition will increase the public’s awareness and passes even faster and to a wider audience the message, through the statements of such a popular architect, instead of the Japanese Architects, that are showing us this path for so many years and we are surprised embarrassed harmony between Architecture and Nature.–Efi Michalarou

* AMO was established in 1999 and is conceived as the mirror image of OMA, operating as a think tank within and independently of the firm.

Photo: NEW NATURE, Highly artificial and sterile environments are employed to create the ideal organic specimen. Today’s glass houses contain all the essential ingredients of life but none of the redundancies: sun, soil, and water are emulated, optimized, and finally automated, Photo: Pieternel van Velden, Courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum