open

Rem Koolhaas 2015
M249B

Invited to design a door handle, Rem Koolhaas and his team responded in a conceptual way, starting with the destructuring of the handle into its primary functional elements: shaft and lever. They decided to whittle them down to the minimum necessary amount of material, and invented a slot joint to unite them mechanically.

FINISHES

  • MATERIALBrass

  • TYPOLOGYRound

OPEN, 2015

This uniting of two independent elements generates many combination possibilities in terms of finishes. The simplicity of the handle allows for personalisation with holes to make it lighter, or different types of coating.

— CCTV television station and headquarters, Beijing, China. 2002–ongoing. Ph. Iwan Baan

— Rem Koolhaas

This is how the name was chosen: Open describes the model’s implicit concept of variability and transformation. — Antonio Olivari

VEDI BIO REM KOOLHAAS

— Seattle Central Library Seattle (USA), 2004. Ph. Philippe Ruault

— Timmerhuis Rotterdam (NL), 2015. Ph. Ossip van Duivenbode.

— Fondazione Prada, Milano 2017. Ph. Bas Princen

M249B