OMA's renderings for the National Art Museum of China competition

[heni30]

What do you think of OMA's renderings for the National Art Museum of China competition

 

http://www.archdaily.com/281332/national-art-museum-of-china-oma/

 

The architecture is done in a uniform beige tone that all but disappears, especially the interiors. They're depending on the activity and color accents to define mood and ambiance. Have they gone too far and lost the communication of the design? It's seems to me like it's teetering on the edge of this avant-garde minimalism on one hand and having gone too extreme to where the lay person is not going to get it, on the other.

Edited October 12, 2012 by heni30
wrong title

[Corey Beaulieu]

In my opinion, these renderings are both perfect and horrendous.

 

You are right, they don't accomplish much in the way of communicating the visual-design itself and for this reason I think they are bad renderings. They are great renderings, however, because OMA has a larger sense of branding than their renderings. They are known for creating less than subtle forms that almost act as an architectural diagram for their position on the purpose of the building. Don't get me wrong, they also have an eye on design, but much of their efforts seem to go into the re-invention of the action of architecture which becomes a reinvention of form in architecture. They seem unconcerned with re-inventing form for the sake of aesthetics. It is for this reason that these rendering are perfect. OMA's architecture is about the action of the architecture and these renderings express the action well.

 

Beyond this, OMA, moreover Rem Koolhaas, has a reputation of this cheeky-style of communication (S,M,L,XL and Content) and these renderings help to further brand his name to a competition piece without needing to plaster his name all over it. If you see these images and can equate them with his prior successes, they start to get a... subliminal perhaps, sense of trust that there is a larger system than mere beauty at play.

 

I think these are effective for whom they were made and likely go along with a larger presentation that deepen their purpose. For me, I think it is important that we all understand that while photo-realistic beauty is great, we as artist have a greater responsibility to project the story of a building beyond the mere appearance.

Edited October 12, 2012 by CoreyMBeaulieu

[heni30]

The image in my OP is utterly shocking. The masses gathered around this bunker like building. The solitary dated government limo (you can see the flag antenna on the left fender) conjuring up images of the ruling party elite. The giant red flag bringing back memories of THE revolution that was the cause of so much anguish and suffering. And that red semi-transparent looming mass at the top (central authority?)

 

And the nightmarish contextual buildings (manufacturing dormitories perhaps?) with the toxic industrial sky beyond. This images touches on so many sore spots; it's amazing that it was let out of the studio!

 

I'd like to get some Chinese cga members reaction to it.

 

And you're right about the established brand. I can just see him in the middle of the presentation pointing out the window to the CCTV building, casually mentioning " oh, and I did that one, too."

Edited October 14, 2012 by heni30

[harryhirsch]

Well, OMA's renderings are like that, its a scene/dram/vision, a context that is not aimed to be a 1:1 reality-rendering.

And yes, it is about Biz, the government is running a new campaign since 3 months... with a lot red flags and and the word patriotism on it.

And whatever you wanna built in China, the party has to give the ok first!

To have a big red flag in the middle of the renderings is kind of normal, all big succesful Design companies do that.

(See the competiton renderings of SOM or GMP in China)

The Building concept is a seperate issue , i assume that the bulding should be like a heroic red flag in the wind...

[Devin Johnston]

That's bad.....just so bad.

[Jason Matthews]

Forget all of the artsy fartsy speak for just a moment and look purely at the composition and content. I think it is terrible. I would expect this from a second year architecture student not from a firm that produces beautiful architecture and conceptual designs. Now having said that, I think that the starkness of life and punctuation of communist RED is very emotional and thought provoking....just not for this type of museum. Just my two cents.

[carlotristan3d]

The design can be another debate alltogether, but just looking at the visuals-most 2nd year student would be embarrased to produce that. It reeks of pompousity and hubris, OMA is probably thinking: you mortals should be so lucky that we even considered participation.

[harryhirsch]

IMHO he does not care to have a great perfect rendering...it is hisway of communicating...showing a vision. Yes, Renderings and movies are pretty much standard for competitions in China, so we have to assume that he really prefers it that way. Look at his physical models, soem of them look more like Toys r us...the materials like red and yellow candies.

[RyderSK]

Like was said, this is his forced style, it's not amateurism. But I of course dislike it, not just the execution, but content too... the giant red flag, ugh.

 

But it can't be denied OMA knows how to approach competitions, they just might think a bit too much about themselves. Rem, the superstar.

[Justin Hunt]

In many ways it is achieving something quite important for competitions, stand out from the rest.

 

As a whole package these images work in grabbing your attention and make you explore the images but not dwell too long before you move onto the next one. Pretty much how they want you to experience the museum by exploring the "City".

 

They are not beautiful images but they do have a certain aesthetic. I find the interior shots more successful than the exterior ones, in particular the rendered image with the bird cage in the distance http://www.archdaily.com/281332/national-art-museum-of-china-oma/national-art-museum-of-china-05-copyright-oma/, which looks just like every other competition, moody, artsy render that are very popular at the moment.

 

jhv