Koolhaas Smlxl

[Leroy Turcios]

Apartfrom obvious plans and sections, the book was a graphic overture that weaved free-wheeling essays, diary excerpts, photographs, architectural sketches, cartoons, doodles, and surreal montages of images fables, fairy tales, and a variety of insightful poetic writings and travelogues. The book intended to trigger the next generation architects out of their rudimentary thinking and negate the urban despair.

Running throughout the book there is a dictionary of the new koolhaasian language which also includes definitions, quotes, and commentaries from various architectural sources. It is more often termed as a stream of consciousness with loosely connected words that form a dictionary.

The book glorifies the reality of the process. A messy process filled with scribbles; red lines that sometimes even makes it illegible. For instance, there is a drawing that depicts that people were discussing this drawing and left a mark on it. This is proof that architecture lives.

The book by Bruce Mau and Rem Koolhaas is a monument to and a polemic about labour. It lays out reasons as to why one could try to overthrow the conventional architectural system. The discourse prepared by renowned designers has paved a path for new thoughts and is an eye-opener for coming generations. The book is not easily accessible or understandable but persistence may deliver more than expected.

I suppose this has become somewhat of a cult phenomenon, but i'm wondering how many editions of S,M,L,XL are out there.

I'll start. I've got the orange and black stamped cover. Inside says:

New edition published throughout the world

(except on the North American continent) in 1997 by

Benedikt Taschen Verlag GambH

Hohenzollernring 53, D-50672 Koln

Germany

Anyone else?

i have the one with the silver-grey cover with light blue letters..

and i have Koolhaas' signature (the real signature by the real person, not by a machine-was when he came to ucla some years back for a lecture).

somehow i dont care about the book and signature anymore...

I have the same as you sameolddoctor: light blue letters.

Oddly enough, mine is signed also, by the real person, but upside-down and in pink paint marker. Had to pretty much stalk Rem after a lecture at Amherst College to get him to sign it.

And Javier is right - the porn being uncensored would ruin the porn...

i have the one that rem took a dump on..It's really great, I think that I am going to put it up for auction soon.

I'll keep the archinect community posted, I bet mad people would want to get their hands on some of rem's fecal matter.

yellow, a guy who came from the NL sold it to me in 200$ (bastard), i thought that at the time it was worth the sacrifice, later i saw it in amazon for 50$, but i guess that because of the weight, sending it to south america would have increased the cost a lot

One yellow Monacelli press, one orange 97 taschen (this happens when you finally fuse library with your girlfriend)

Curious note for hardcore fans: the orange signed by 'maddie', pg. 22. on the side of her work.

silver/purple, second edition, 1998.

as an aside: just finished the career overview of bruce mau called 'life style'. it's out in paperback and worth picking up. about the smae size as smlxl. same manifesto-style text, too, but the fact that it was about graphic design and NOT architecture made it easier for me to free associate and spin off interesting ideas (that may or not have any bearing on architecture) into my sketchbook. i got so into the specifics of smlxl that it was harder for me to do this.

fine, fine, if anyone can get 2g's for their yellow and silver copy of SMLXL, please post the receipt here so we can all shower you with our praises and fecal matter. What about OMA pre-SMLXL - any interesting editions of delirious new york out there?

i somehow aquired the japanese version of delirious ny while working at monacelli (we received a lot of internatioal edition copies for 'approval').

kept it as an catalyst to eventually learn (some) jpnese.

smlxl - first edition, monicelli press (the yellow cover). signed by rem at the gsd the night of the book release (he was lecturing and autographing). still in really good shape.

delirious new york - first edition paperback, oxford press. a gift from an older architect who didn't really like how rem had evolved. probably not worth all that much, certainly not as much as the hardback.

yellow first ed. smlxl signed

hardcover delirious first ed. (25 bucks used,perfect condition)got it signed - he gasped and asked if I was sure that I wanted him to deface it - not kidding...just sign the book rem - at the time I almost didn't have twenty five bucks in the bank.

what is it worth?

sad...

i have the green edition (3rd printing). green text on green paper. the very slight difference in paper/ink color makes it a bit hard to read.

everyone seriously interested in this thread: fuck off and die.

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