Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology by OMA

Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is an international practice operating within the traditional boundaries of architecture and urbanism. AMO, a research and design studio, applies architectural thinking to domains beyond. 

OMA is led by eight partners – Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and Managing Partner-Architect David Gianotten – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia. OMA-designed buildings currently under construction are the renovation of Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) in Berlin, The Factory in Manchester, Hangzhou Prism, the CMG Times Center in Shenzhen and the Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux.

OMA’s completed projects include Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux (2024), LANTERN in Detroit (2024), Mangalem 21 in Tirana (2023), Aviva Studios – Factory International in Manchester (2023), Apollolaan 171 in Amsterdam (2023), Buffalo AKG Art Museum in Buffalo (2023), Toranomon Hills Station Tower in Tokyo (2023), Taipei Performing Arts Centre (2022), Audrey Irmas Pavilion in Los Angeles (2020), Norra Tornen in Stockholm (2020), Axel Springer Campus in Berlin (2020), MEETT Toulouse Exhibition and Convention Centre (2020), Galleria in Gwanggyo (2020), WA Museum Boola Bardip (2020), nhow RAI Hotel in Amsterdam (2020), a new building for Brighton College (2020), and Potato Head Studios in Bali (2020). Earlier buildings include Fondazione Prada in Milan (2018), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015), De Rotterdam (2013), CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012), Casa da Música in Porto (2005), and the Seattle Central Library (2004).

AMO often works in parallel with OMA's clients to fertilize architecture with intelligence from this array of disciplines. This is the case with Prada: AMO's research into identity, in-store technology, and new possibilities of content-production in fashion helped generate OMA's architectural designs for new Prada epicenter stores in New York and Los Angeles. In 2004, AMO was commissioned by the European Union to study its visual communication, and designed a colored "barcode" flag, combining the flags of all member states, which was used during the Austrian presidency of the EU. 

AMO has worked with Universal Studios, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, Heineken, Ikea, Condé Nast, Harvard University and the Hermitage. It has produced Countryside: The Future, a research exhibited at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, including Public Works (2012), Cronocaos (2010), and The Gulf (2006); and for Fondazione Prada, including When Attitudes Become Form (2012) and Serial and Portable Classics (2015). AMO, with Harvard University, was responsible for the research and curation of the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale and its publication Elements. Other notable projects are Roadmap 2050, a plan for a Europe-wide renewable energy grid; Project Japan, a 720-page book on the Metabolism architecture movement (Taschen, 2010); and the educational program of Strelka Institute in Moscow.

Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is a leading international partnership practicing architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis. OMA's buildings and masterplans around the world insist on intelligent forms while inventing new possibilities for content and everyday use. OMA is led by ten partners – Rem Koolhaas, Ellen van Loon, Reinier de Graaf, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, David Gianotten, Chris van Duijn, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Jason Long and Michael Kokora – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Beijing, Hong Kong, Doha and Dubai.

Responsible for OMA’s operations in America, OMA New York was established in 2001 and has since overseen the successful completion of several buildings across the country including Milstein Hall at Cornell University (2011); the Wyly Theater in Dallas (2009); the Seattle Central Library (2004); the IIT Campus Center in Chicago (2003); and Prada’s Epicenter in New York (2001). The office is currently overseeing the construction of three cultural projects, including the Musée National des Beaux-arts du Québec and the Faena Arts District in Miami Beach – both scheduled for completion in 2016 – as well as a studio expansion for artist Cai Guo Qiang in New York. The New York office has most recently been commissioned to design a number of residential towers in San Francisco, New York, and Miami, as well as two projects in Los Angeles; the Plaza at Santa Monica, a mixed use complex in Los Angeles, and the Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

OMA New York’s ongoing engagements with urban conditions around the world include a new civic center in Bogota, Colombia; a post-Hurricane Sandy, urban water strategy for New Jersey; the 11th Street Bridge Park and RFK Stadium-Armory Campus Masterplan in Washington, DC; and a food hub in West Louisville, Kentucky.

Expanding upon his built work for museums and cultural institutions, Sho engages the art world through various facets, from collaborations with artists such as Cai Guo-Qiang and Marina Abramović to structures and strategies integrating landscape and resiliency including an underwater art park and distinct structure for the ReefLine in Miami Beach and a mushroom pavilion in Mexico.

Sho’s works in the fashion industry span typologies and scales, from redefined retail spaces as mediums for branding to exploration of exhibitions and scenographies as narrative mediums. In Japan, Sho led the design and successful completion of the Coach flagship in Tokyo and is currently overseeing Harajuku Quest, a cultural and commercial platform connecting Omotesando and Harajuku. Sho has worked with fashion brands and houses, as well as museums, on major exhibition designs—Louis Vuitton Visionary Journeys in Bangkok; Dior retrospectives in Denver, Dallas, and Tokyo; Prada “Waist Down” in Tokyo, Seoul, New York, and Los Angeles; and Manus x Machina at the Met Costume Institute.

Sho has built several innovative workspaces and mixed-use buildings, including the China Central TelevisionHeadquarters in Beijing (2012), the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Headquarters (2013), Tenjin Business Center in Fukuoka, Japan (2021), and most recently, the Toranomon Hills Station Tower for Mori Building Co, Ltd. In Tokyo(2023). His innovation centre design for the Chicago Center for Education & Research for Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) and the University of Illinois System is currently underway.

Sho has lectured at TED and Wired Japan conferences, and universities throughout the world. He has been a visiting professor at Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP), Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), and Columbia University GSAPP. He has been a professor at Kyushu University of Human Environment Studies and Director of BeCAT (Built Environment Center with Art & Technology) since 2021.