Living With Architecture

“Loolhaas Houselife” is a unique film that was a standout at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. “Houselife” explores the Rem Koolhaas designed Maison à Bordeaux, considered a masterpiece of contemporary architecture. The movie examines the reality of living with iconic modern architecture through the staff that has to take care of it.

We Make Money Not Art reports:

The peculiarity of the movie is that it presents this icon of contemporary architecture through the eyes of Guadalupe Acedo, the cleaning lady, and the other people who look after the building. The charming and devoted cleaning lady struggles with the heavy curtains, the narrow staircase, the either oddly shaped or gigantic glass panels, etc. Clearly this house has not been designed for the people who have the bad idea to live outside of architecture magazines. Once in a while you can hear Guadalupe whisper gems such as: ‘If I had money, I would not build a house like this.’

One of the highlights of the video is this snippet of interview which shows a Koolhaas surprised by Guadalupe’s take and treatment of his building: ‘You see here two systems colliding: the system of the platonic conception of cleaning with the platonic conception of architecture.’

We Make Money Not Art: “Venice Biennale of Architecture: Koolhaas Houselife”