Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large [Hardcover]

Rem Koolhaas (Author), Bruce Mau (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1344 pages
• Publisher: Monacelli Pr (1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3822877433
• ISBN-13: 978-3822877432
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.2 x 3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,211,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

98 of 128 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Extra Medium..., November 13, 2004

By 

tierny - See all my reviews

This review is from: S M L XL (Hardcover)

There's a terrific line in Breakfast at Tiffany's. George Peppard proudly hands neighbor Audrey Hepburn a copy of his just-published book. She has no idea what to do with it, so she puts it on a shelf next to a vase, backs away and says "Doesn't that look nice?"
This book is a lot like that. A self-conciously designed object for the homes of style consumers who already have the right clothes and the B&B Italia furniture. A prop for the still-life they want to inhabit. If they ever got around to "reading" it, they'd discover to their great relief... it's NOT a book to be read in any strict classical sense.

It also reminds me of a New Yorker cartoon where one associate asks another, "Read the first few pages of any good books lately?" The age of the short attention span is not going away any time soon. This hefty grey slab is easily recast as the shiny new headstone for verbalized intelligence.

As Kracauer holds it, there's nothing wrong with framing a culture via fragments, but I have plenty of qualms about advancing one's own ideas that way. And I'm suspect of ideas that trowel on style in the abundance seen here. If I could believe Bruce Mau's intentions were more than just trying to look new, (This 'look' now permeates architecture publications) I'd have more respect for this, but it was obviously calculated as a totem of style and style-suffusion.

For better or for worse, the book got noticed, the industry was distracted by the pretty surfaces and the ascent of Koolhaas is a done deal.
If you want to actually READ a book full of Koolhaas' thoughts, skip this and get a copy of Delirious New York.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to pack a city into a book - Lesson 1, June 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: S M L XL (Hardcover)

This is a dense manifesto of ideas. It might be termed a printed hypertext, with a continuous glossary of terms being defined by Koolhaas this could serve as an alternative dictionary. The book is too broad for simply architecture, urban planning theory &c. which it professes to having as its infrastructure. It deals with all design issues, from the content of OMAs projects, to the beautifully printed and assembled object that is the book itself. Attempt to read as a linear narrative at your own risk.

24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MASTERPIECE, March 28, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Atlanta Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: S M L XL (Hardcover)

I'm about half way through it and already it has profoundly changed my view of the world around me. This book transcends architecture and touches on spirituality, politics, society and culture. A stirring manifesto for the convergence of several aspects of the global condition. Reading it has sparked a wave of creativity in my own line of work (financial analyst/software developer). Why is architecture important? Because it deals with the design of systems. Physical systems, biological, computer and natural systems. Architecture is life. I beleive Mr. Koolhaas understands this by evidence of his writings. Bravo!