105. OMA /// Villa dall’Ava /// Paris, France /// 1985–1991

OfHouses guest curated by Bart Lootsma:
“The Villa dall’Ava by Rem Koolhaas and Xaveer de Geyter is an intellectual and social experiment on many levels. The plan deconstructs a family of husband, wife and daughter radically, separating their respective quarters (man in basement, daughter in small villa near the road, woman’s boudoir in the back of the house overlooking the garden) by a void and a swimming pool. They can meet and refigure on an open floor in the middle of the house, which is a seamless continuation of the lawn. A thick curtain ‘stands’ on the floor, thus having a different shape and forming a different space every time it is closes. Also the roof is a garden: partly planted, partly water. Thus, the villa is in line with Raymond Hood’s dictum that architecture is a multiplication of the natural surface of the earth. With the pool on an imaginary line to the Eiffel tower on one side and the countryside on the other, the house is also contemplation on the suburban house. It is a desire machine or, with the Story of the Pool in Delirious New York in mind, a Bachelor Machine even, oscillating between the desire for the city or the desire for nature. The house hints also at the films of Jacques Tati, with whom Rem’s father collaborated. As an art project, Hans Werlemann produced a film in the house, integrating the Story of the Pool, Jean Nouvel, a real giraffe greeting the postman, a black panther and other animals, probably as homage to Anton Koolhaas, who became famous for his stories featuring animals. He died when the house was just finished and Rem never wanted the photographs or the film to be used again. This material, which would have loaded the house with references and meaning, has since been forgotten.“