The Rotterdam Kunsthal, OMA and the Process of European Integration in the Late 1980s

The paper focuses on the Rotterdam Kunsthal by OMA and its relation to a double shift during the second half of the 1980s: the process of European Integration gaining momentum, and, with not much delay, a new approach both within the thinking and the work of Rem Koolhaas. Drawing on recent literature on European Integration as well as Koolhaas' essays, statements and architectural production of this period, the study points out a series of parallels between the economic restructuring of Europe and the simultaneous reorientation of OMA. On this basis it is being discussed in how far the design of the Kunsthal was akin to the "New Europe" and OMA’s response to its advent, or, instead, to Europe’s waning condition and OMA’s architectural repertoire from the eighties.