Among the most renowned and well-established offices in the world, OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture, founded in the 1970s by Rem Koolhaas, Elia Zenghelis, Madelon Vriesendorp, and Zoe Zenghelis, is definitely part of the pantheon of the most famous. Curiously, although it receives large commissions and has already built several emblematic works in different countries, the office is often associated with an approach that is less focused on architectural design, going beyond the strict limits of the disciplinary field and encompassing other areas of practice.
The fact that the office has a department dedicated exclusively to interdisciplinary research and practices that transcend architecture contributes to this perception. AMO carries out everything from trend investigations and printed publications to curation work (the 14th Venice Biennale of Architecture, for example) and exhibition projects, having contributed to the consolidation of Koolhaas' dismissive portrayal towards architectural projects and, consequently, of OMA as an office that is permeable to the influence of other arts/areas.
Over the last few years, OMA/AMO's number of exhibition commissions has increased, as shown on the office's website. The largest and possibly most famous of them is the 2014 Venice Biennale exhibition, under the name Elements of Architecture. Below are eighteen exhibitions designed by the office – some of which have been curated by OMA/AMO itself.
Knoll Celebrates Bauhaus
True Me
Scaffolding
Stedelijk BASE
Countryside, The Future
lR100-Rinascente: Stories of Innovation
Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology
PANDA
What is The Netherlands?
Elements of Architecture
Public Works - Architecture by Civil Servants
Making Doha
Dior: From Paris to the World
Manifesta 12 The Planetary Garden: Cultivating Coexistence
Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech
Countryside at the United Nations
Taryn Simon: An Occupation of Loss
Hospital of the Future
Originally published in May 2019, updated in July 2021.