Why was it even built?!

When someone says something like 'why was it even built?' 'Why the fuck not?!' is always my answer. 'CREATE MORE!' I want to shout in the face of naysayers. But here I know that that's a knee jerk and I'm kinda asking myself as well, why exactly was it built?

In this article in the Guardian Oliver Wainwright pops over to Rotterdamn to see the latest creation by the cities favorite son on the water front. Rotterdam is a manic mix up of the last 50 years of architecture after it was flattened in the war, then rebuilt with a creative energy not seen by other ruined post war cities.

Evidently for Koolhaas this is a deeply personal or even obsessive project. From his first ideas of "Manhattanisasion" in his first book 'Delirious' to his on going comment and involvement in the cities riverside development, this project has easily been a life time in the making for Koolhaas.Now in a very different time of prosperity (talking about the time before the financial crisis) this monster is the biggest building in the Denmark, all flashy and showy and, quite literally, vacant.

The hulking mass can not be missed and cleverly creates different facades from each angle. It's a skyline on top of a skyline. A massive jumble of parts trying to look even more huge than it already is. The development includes everything and it's mother from 70,000 sq m of office space, 240 apartments, 285-room boutique hotel to shops, car parking, restaurants, conference facilities and anything else you can think of, it's not mixed use, it's a proper intentional 'vertical city'

Although as Wainwright is left to explore the interior it becomes apparent that like this building is another example of the show stopping envelope with a banal commercial realities interior. Of course with such interesting building structure there can be no shortage of dramatic internal spaces but with out any apparent due diligence it appears that condo living beside government offices might wear thin quite quickly. Koolhaas impresses that this is a building equipped for flexibility where as critics are sticking out with what most of us are thinking - 'why build more offices when there is so many existing vacant ones?'

This building was OMA's longest running project and now is a literal product of the recession as contracts recently have been cheaper making the leviathan a reality but noone can move in. So again, what exactly was the point?

I have this problem with the Shard in London as well. Born of cheeky developers and financial crisis but now it's here, yeah it's cool and everything but, why again? Don't get me wrong but it's just a hunk of foreign money falsely stimulating the UK economy right?

Maybe I'm not so much of an idealist as I profess.

Watch the man himself talk about the project in this handy video.

'Delirious'