OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture

The main objective of any design exercise executed within the firm is to provide the client with new, original concepts and a practical architecture with, occasionally, visionary ambitions. In all projects OMA strives to go beyond the standard solution and is consequently able to redefine typologies. Our strategy to tackle projects is based on two fundamental principles: research and collaboration.

Within research, OMA’s philosophy rejects any rush to architectural form. It is our proven experience that by taking adequate time to think with our clients before we start to ‘design’, we can ultimately accelerate the design process and provide buildings of greater quality for a given budget. Working in an initial research and programming phase that can data collection, research of significant precedents (both good and bad), we can identify the core questions and jointly create solutions without confusing them with reactions to architectural proposals. As an example, OMA has applied this method of research successfully in the design process of the Seattle Public Library. From this research, it has been found that given the development of ‘new media’, the classical library concept is predisposed to considerable adjustments.

During every phase of the design process, OMA leads an extended series of intimate collaborations—brainstorm sessions, presentations and workshops—between clients, engineers, architects and other crucial participants of intellectual collaborations such as curators, sociologists, and anthropologists mobilized by our AMO think tank; as well as practical collaborators such as cost estimators, construction managers, contractors, and specialty consultants. Through these events, programmatic and engineering concepts are fully integrated in the formation of the initial design concepts, rather than being an ‘afterthought’ to aesthetic imperatives; this provides the client with the maximum built quality. By means of this approach, the knowledge of all advisors can be used to come up with an optimal design from which all criteria have been analyzed. The client can be an active member within the design team and during the workshops. The design is therefore a product, which is realized in close collaboration with the client.

OMA believes strongly in design as a process, and approaches each condition imposed on a project as an opportunity rather than a constraint. This is the attitude with which we approach codes, regulatory agencies, costs, and most importantly, the unique challenges and requirements of any given program. Addressed skilfully, normally restrictive factors have assisted OMA to provide innovative architecture while meeting tight budgets and rigorous design and construction schedules.