Exodus 2021
For Valerie Kronauer and Gerd Wetzel, the Brexit and the approaching anniversary year of "EXODUS or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture", the final thesis by Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis, published in 1972 provided an opportunity to shed light on the work "Exodus" considering the developments of the past decades and to scrutinise it in the context of the approaches and criticism of the time. The history of architecture shows that the built environment has always reflected social processes and social developments since the beginning of human coexistence. From a grievance as a driving force for change and innovation, the creative speculations serve decades later as impressive documentation of trends and insights of past eras. One of these contributions is the final thesis by Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis, in which they expressed their urbanistic impulses together with Madelon Vriesendorp and Zoe Zenghelis. Using the collage technique, the authors criticised the physical and ideological decay of urban societies in text and images and made direct reference to contemporary issues and problems in their reflections. Central themes are the contrasts between coercion and freedom as well as the social changes in modern cities in the context of increasing globalisation and urbanisation. Although the work is already over 50 years old, the themes and methods used have lost none of their relevance and topicality. The elusive scale of the building in "Exodus" is concretised in "Exodus 2021" by placing it in relation to the surrounding urban space through the human scale. This allows the authors to immerse themselves in the structure, considering the aesthetic expression of the original work, and to re-imagine individual areas in the current social context. The narrative of a real utopian vision is continued.