Charrette Submission for The Museum of Modern Art Expansion, New York, NY (View of open plaza, ground level)
Rem Koolhaas
Dutch, born 1944
1997
A collage on paper in which Rem Koolhaas stages a proposed ground‑level plaza for MoMA’s expansion, using cutout figures and bold geometric planes to explore how people, circulation, and urban context might inhabit the new space.
A deep, slanted black canopy cuts across the view, its thin columns and scattered magazine‑cut figures giving the scene a theatrical, almost cinematic emptiness while textured photomontage walls and a distant car suggest the surrounding city beyond.
The piece shows Koolhaas’s use of collage and scenographic representation to rethink museum architecture as a contested public arena, reflecting late‑20th‑century debates about programmatic flexibility, urban engagement, and how architecture communicates social life.
Medium
Collage on paper
Dimensions
11 3/4 x 16 1/2" (29.8 x 41.9 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the architect
Accession
476.1997.9
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
