Rhetorical Figuration in the Work of Rem Koolhaas

Resumen

Abstract

A design concept can be considered as a logical proposition formed by different elements, related to one another. The structure of the concept depends not only on the elements that make it up, but also on the order established among them. Hence, an alteration in this order is sufficient to modify the logical construction of the concept. Consequently, one can generate new design concepts by modifying the internal order of known propositions.
As a construction formed by elements connected to one another, the ‘design concept’ can be compared to a grammatical form. If syntax is “the part of grammar that shows how to coordinate and join words in order to form sentences and express concepts” (Real-Academia-Española, 2014), then manipulating the order of the elements of a design concept is a syntactic operation.
To generate new architectural concepts by making modifications in the logical order present in existing concepts can be called the ‘syntax’ strategy. Rem Koolhaas’ way of designing is a paradigmatic example of this strategy.
Since antiquity, orators and writers have resorted to the manipulation of the natural order to attract the receiver’s attention, with the aim of persuading and/or delighting him. These procedures are known as ‘figures’ and ‘tropes’ and they operate in different levels of the language. The most frequent definition of ‘figure’, inherited from antiquity and clearly defined by Quintilian, is a conscious modification of language.
Given that rhetoric lays out a number of figures as classical procedures associated with syntax, the classificatory scheme of ‘syntactic figures’ is appropriate to analyse the use of rhetorical syntax in the work of Rem Koolhaas.