Cool Tour of Koolhaas's Casa da Musica

360portugal.com has recently posted some great 360 Panoramas of Rem Koolhaas's recently completed Casa da Musica in Portugal. (Link at the bottom of the 360portugal page.) DYWSC? is preparing for a big post on Rem, so to get in the zen, here are interesting segments from two articles on the Casa da Musica, a building that admittedly is a bit of a mystery...

What's most striking about Casa da Musica is that Koolhaas cites from his own work. Spatially it contains traces of the Netherlands Dance Theatre in The Hague and the Grand Expo in Lille; the tunnel idea and the resulting organisation are more intelligent versions of the Kunsthal in Rotterdam; and the total concept is nothing but an attractive 'excavation exquis'. But one can nonetheless question this 'Koolhaasination', which could be seen as evidence of extreme opportunism without any clear ideology. The architecture and ideas of Rem Koolhaas still influence current discussion and practice, and rightly so, but they are only interpreted when they hit the earth. Perhaps it's time to uncover the universe from where this meteorite comes, since only a critical and intelligent approach towards it can save us from the prevailing onslaught of 'no context, no ideology' urban spacejunk. Ground control to…

- Bert de Muynck on Archined

... I can see every reason to hate the Casa da Musica. It is swaggeringly egotistical. Its very shape wants to topple over, requiring below-ground structural heroics to keep it upright. It is daft. It is also wonderful. To understand it, you must experience it. Then you will be glad, because what you will experience is the pure rush of raw, cask-strength architecture, undiluted, at its best.

Hugh Pearman of London's Sunday Times