OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture

Rem Koolhaas (Rotterdam, 1944) founded OMA in 1975 together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp. He graduated from the Architectural Association in London and in 1978 published Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. In 1995, his book S,M,L,XL summarized the work of OMA in "a novel about architecture". He co-heads the work of both OMA and AMO, the research branch of OMA, operating in areas beyond the realm of architecture. His built work includes the Austrian House (2023), Taipei Performing Arts Center (2022), Axel Springer Campus in Berlin (2020), the Qatar National Library and the Qatar Foundation Headquarters (2018), Fondation Galeries Lafayette in Paris (2018), Fondazione Prada in Milan (2015/2018), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015), the headquarters for China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing (2012), Casa da Musica in Porto (2005), Seattle Central Library (2004), and the Netherlands Embassy in Berlin (2003). Koolhaas directed the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, is a professor at Harvard University, and curated Countryside: The Future (2020), an exhibition about the non-urban areas around the globe that opened in February 2020 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Reinier de Graaf joined OMA in 1996. He is responsible for building and masterplanning projects in Europe and the Middle East, including Al Daayan Health District in Doha, Norra Tornen in Stockholm (completed 2020), the nhow RAI Hotel in Amsterdam (completed 2020), Holland Green in London (completed 2016), Timmerhuis in Rotterdam (completed 2015), G-Star Headquarters in Amsterdam (completed 2014) and De Rotterdam (completed 2013). In 2002, he co-founded AMO, the think tank of OMA, and produced The Image of Europe, an exhibition illustrating the history of the European Union. He has overseen AMO’s increasing involvement in sustainability and energy planning, including Zeekracht: A Strategy for Masterplanning the North Sea; the publication in 2010 of Roadmap 2050: A Practical Guide to a Prosperous, Low-Carbon Europe with the European Climate Foundation; and The Energy Report, a global plan for 100 percent renewable energy by 2050, with the WWF. De Graaf has worked extensively in Moscow, overseeing OMA’s proposal to design the masterplan for the Skolkovo Centre for Innovation, the ‘Russian Silicon Valley', and leading a consortium which proposed a development concept for the Moscow Agglomeration, an urban plan for Greater Moscow. He has curated the exhibitions On Hold at the British School in Rome (2011) and Public Works: Architecture by Civil Servants (Venice Biennale, 2012; Berlin, 2013). He is the author of Four Walls and a Roof, The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession, the novel The Masterplan, and architect, verb.

Shohei Shigematsu is a Partner at OMA, based out of the New York office. He has been a driving force behind many of OMA’s projects, leading the firm’s diverse portfolio in the Americas for the past decade. With an emphasis on maximum specificity and process-oriented design, Sho provides design leadership and direction across the company for projects from their conceptual onset to completed construction.

Sho is responsible for delivering a number of cultural projects across North America, including Milstein Hall, an extension to the College of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University; a new museum for the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec; the Faena Forum, a multi-purpose venue in Miami Beach and the renovation and reimagination of Sotheby’s New York Headquarters. His cultural projects currently in progress include a museum expansion for the New Museum in New York City; an extension to the Albright Knox Gallery in Buffalo, New York and an event space for the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles. Sho has also designed exhibitions for Prada, the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Park Avenue Armory, Dior’s first US retrospective at Denver Art Museum and at the Dallas Museum of Art. He has collaborated with multiple artists – including Cai Guo-Qiang, Marina Abramović, Kanye West and Taryn Simon.

Sho’s urban and public space designs around the world include the Willow Campus masterplan, an integrated mixed-use village for Facebook in Menlo Park, California; a mixed-use development in Santa Monica; a new civic center in Bogota, Colombia; a post-Hurricane Sandy urban water strategy for New Jersey; and in Toronto, the largest transit-oriented development currently underway in North America.

Sho has built a number of innovative workspaces including–the China Central Television Headquarters in Beijing (2012), and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Headquarters (2013). He is currently designing a new business center in Fukuoka (2020) and OMA’s first tower in Tokyo for Mori Building Co, Ltd. (2022). Sho’s designs for three residential projects are under construction across the country–from New York to San Francisco and Miami.

A design critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Sho has lectured at TED and Wired Japan conference, and at universities throughout the world.

Iyad Alsaka joined OMA as a director in 2007 and became partner in 2011. Responsible for OMA’s work in the Middle East and Africa, Iyad has led projects including the acclaimed masterplan for Waterfront City in Dubai, the HIA Airport City masterplan in Doha, Concrete at Alserkal Avenue, a new public venue for Dubai’s cultural district, and the Qatar National Library in Doha. Iyad's current projects include the Wafra Tower in Kuwait City, and the Qatar Cultural and Sports Hub in Doha. Before joining OMA, Iyad was director of design and development at Dubai Holding where he was responsible for numerous projects. Born in 1969 in Syria, Iyad holds a degree in Architectural Engineering from the University of Aleppo.

David Gianotten is the Managing Partner – Architect of OMA, where he oversees the firm’s organizational and financial management, business strategy, and global growth, alongside leading his architectural portfolio.

David currently leads significant projects worldwide, including the Museo Egizio 2024 in Turin; the New Selman Stërmasi Stadium in Tirana; the Waterkant masterplan in Rotterdam-Zuid; Amsterdam’s Bajes Kwartier, transforming a 1960s prison complex into a vibrant neighborhood of 1,350 apartments; Eindhoven’s VDMA, revitalizing an industrial site into a mixed-use urban hub; the new Koepel District in Breda, converting a Panopticon and Judicial Compound into a mixed-use area; the Innovation Partnership Schools in Amsterdam; and the Metropolitan Village, a high-rise residential building in Taipei.

Projects that David has delivered include the Gallery of the Kings at Museo Egizio (2024), AIR Circular Campus and Cooking Club in Singapore (2024), Apollolaan 171, a high-end office building in Amsterdam (2023), the Taipei Performing Arts Center (2022), Bali’s Potato Head Studios (2020), the WA Museum Boola Bardip in Perth (2020), Prince Plaza in Shenzhen (2020), White Cube LIRCAEI in Lusanga (2018), and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (2013). He also oversaw the final stages of the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012).

David’s leadership extends to curatorial projects, such as designing an opening exhibition for Powerhouse Parramatta in Australia and co-curating N*thing is Possible at the Singapore Design Centre (2022). His projects have garnered recognitions, including the NRC’s Best Architecture of 2024, Architectural Digest’s Great Design Awards (2020), and the Australian Institute of Architects Western Australian Chapter Awards (2021). David lectures globally on topics including the concept of circular design, the future of the architectural profession, the role of context in projects, and speed and risk in architecture.

David joined OMA in 2008, launched its Hong Kong office in 2009, and became Partner in 2010, leading the Asia-Pacific portfolio for seven years. Since 2015, he has been based in the Netherlands, managing OMA globally. Before OMA, he was Principal Architect at SeARCH in the Netherlands. David has taught extensively at the Architectural Urban Design and Engineering department at the Eindhoven University of Technology, where he is an alumnus.

Chris van Duijn became partner in 2014 and is leading OMA’s work in Asia. Joining the practice in 1996, he was involved in many of OMA’s most renowned projects including Universal Studios in Los Angeles, the Prada stores in New York and Los Angeles (2001), Casa da Musica in Porto (2005), and the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012). In addition to large-scale and complex projects, he has worked on interiors and small-scale structures, including private houses, product design, and temporary structures such as the Prada Transformer in Seoul (2009). Recently completed projects include the JOMOO Headquarters in Xiamen (2025), Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux (2024), the Axel Springer Campus in Berlin (2020), Hanwha Galleria Department Store in Seoul (2020), MEETT Toulouse Exhibition and Convention Centre (2020), the Bibliothèque Alexis de Tocqueville in Caen, France (2017), Fondazione Prada in Milan (2015), and the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015). Current projects in Asia include the Hangzhou Prism and the CMG Qianhai Global Trade Center in Shenzhen. Chris holds a Master of Architecture from the Technical University of Delft.

Jason Long is a Partner at OMA who leads its New York office and diverse portfolio in the Americas. Since joining the firm in 2003, Jason has brought a research-driven, interdisciplinary approach to a wide range of OMA’s projects internationally.

A number of projects under Jason’s direction take a creative approach to adaptive reuse and preservation, including POST Houston, the transformation of a former post office warehouse into a mixed-use hub; the conversion of a historic parking garage in New York City into a new synagogue; the renovation of the historic Fitzgerald Building at University of Toronto into the university’s administration center; the adaptive reuse of Jersey City’s historic Pathside Building into Centre Pompidou x Jersey City; and LANTERN, the reimagination of a former commercial bakery into a community arts hub in Detroit.

Jason also leads projects in Washington D.C. that provide an innovative approach to recreation, public health, and equitable development at varying scales: a streetscape design for Washington D.C.’s convention center, the 11th Street Bridge Park connecting disparate communities on either side of the Anacostia River, and a masterplan for the RFK Stadium Armory Campus.

His diverse portfolio of residential projects include The Perigon in Miami Beach and Greenpoint Landing D, OMA’s first high rise towers in New York. In California, he oversaw the completion of The Avery in San Francisco and is currently leading the design of 730 Stanyan, a 100% affordable housing building in historic Haight Ashbury.