Motion. Change. Transformity. Multifunction. Transition.
Technology. All of these words describe the works created by Rem Koolhaas’ OMA
office for the Prada foundation. Since the collaboration began between the two
design houses nearly a decade ago, the OMA has been responsible for several
merchandise epicenters, seasonal set design for Prada’s Milan showroom, an
advertising campaign for Prada Sport, as well as several other projects. One in
particular which caught my attention is the rotating pavilion created for Prada
in Seoul, South Korea, called the Prada Transformer. The design implements
multifunction to the extreme: a four-sided tetrahedron with a different shape
on each face, the pavilion may be rotated according to the function it needs to
serve for any event. One face is a circle, another a rectangle, another a
hexagon, and finally a cross.
Although the design seems functional to the utmost degree, I
created a cutting to illustrate a key, yet easily overlooked, factor in the
implementation of this rotating pavilion. In order to rotate the 21 meter high
structure, 4 large cranes must attach to the steel skeleton, raise it off the
ground, and rotate it in midair to correspond to its new function. Without
these 4 cranes, the rotation of the structure is impossible. But how successful
is an architecture which depends on external elements to be successful? If
Transformer’s cranes allow it to transform, the principle design concept,
should OMA have made them an integrated, designed
aspect of their final product? What may have been more interesting is if OMA
had designed the cranes themselves as permanent structures to display the tools
which allow the pavilion to transform itself, rather than hiding them from
view.