Teun Koolhaas (7 January 1940 in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

– 3 October 2007 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

) was a Dutch architect and urban planner.

Early years

Teun Koolhaas was born in Singapore, where his father, Rem Koolhaas, worked as a shipbuilding engineer. When Southeast Asia was occupied by Japan, Teun and his mother were imprisoned in Tjideng camp in

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

. After the end of the Japanese occupation of Indonesia, the family was reunited, and they moved to Hong Kong. In 1955 Koolhaas returned to the Netherlands to complete his secondary education. He then went on to study engineering at the

Technical University of Delft Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...

, where he attended lectures by artists including

Gerrit Rietveld Gerrit Rietveld (24 June 1888 – 25 June 1964) was a Dutch furniture designer and architect. Early life Rietveld was born in Utrecht on 24 June 1888 as the son of a joiner. He left school at 11 to be apprenticed to his father and enrolled at ni ...

and

Cornelis van Eesteren Cornelis van Eesteren (4 July 1897, Alblasserdam - 21 February 1988, Amsterdam) was a prominent Dutch architect and urban planner. He worked for the Town Planning department of Amsterdam (1929–59) and was the chairman of the CIAM (1930–1947 ...

. After graduating in 1967 Koolhaas continued his studies at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...

in the United States. At Harvard, he earned a degree in urban planning.

Work

In 1969 Koolhaas returned to the Netherlands, where he went to work for the architectural firm, Environmental Design SA. Among other things he designed the dentistry school building at the

University of Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

in the Uithof complex. Today, the departments of biology and pharmaceutical sciences are located there. The official name is the F.A.F.C. Went Building (after the botanist

Frits Went Friedrich August Ferdinand Christian Went ForMemRS (June 18, 1863 – July 24, 1935) was a Dutch botanist. Went was born in Amsterdam. He was professor of botany and director of the Botanical Garden at the University of Utrecht. His eldest ...

). In 1972 Koolhaas began working for the National Office for the IJsselmeer Polders (RIJP). As part of a team of architects, urban planners, sociologists, traffic planners and landscape architects, Koolhaas played an important role in creating the master plan for the new city of

Almere Almere () is a Planned community, planned List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Flevoland, Netherlands, located about 20 km ...

in the south island of

Flevoland Flevoland () is the twelfth and youngest province of the Netherlands, established in 1986, when the southern and eastern Flevopolders, together with the Noordoostpolder, were merged into one provincial entity. It is in the centre of the countr ...

, and was responsible for its urban design. In 1981 Koolhaas left the Almere project and moved to the regular organization of the RIJP, where he was involved in the design of

Zeewolde Zeewolde () is a municipality and a town in the Flevoland province in the central Netherlands. It has a population of approximately 22,000 (2017). It is situated in the polder of Flevoland with the small lake called the Wolderwijd to the east. To ...

, and made designs for

Markerwaard 200px, The Markerwaard would be on what is now the Markermeer The Markerwaard is the name of a proposed, but never built, polder adjoining the IJsselmeer in the central Netherlands. Its construction would have resulted in the near-total reclamat ...

, a

polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a lake or the seabed # Flood plains s ...

that was never built. In the mid-eighties Koolhaas started out on his own, and founded Ontwerpbureau Ir. Teun Koolhaas Associates (TKA). TKA's work included the master plan for

Kop van Zuid Kop van Zuid () is a neighborhood of Rotterdam, Netherlands, located on the south bank of the Nieuwe Maas opposite the center of town. The district is relatively young and includes the Wilhelmina Pier as well as the ''V'' bounded by the Rose Stre ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

. In 2003, suffering from cancer, Koolhaas left TKA but continued working almost until his death in October 2007; he was commissioned by the municipalities of Almere and Amsterdam to design the new town Almere Pampus.

Family

Teun Koolhaas is the father of actress Betje Koolhaas. Author and screenwriter

Anton Koolhaas Anthonie "Anton" Koolhaas (16 November 1912 – 16 December 1992) was a Dutch journalist, novelist, and scenario writer. Biography Anthonie Koolhaas was born on 16 November 1912 in Utrecht, Netherlands. He was the son of Teunis Koolhaas and Trij ...

(father of architect

Rem Koolhaas Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a re ...

) was his paternal uncle.

Awards

*1967–1969: Harkness Fellowship of the Commonwealth Fund, New York *1970: Grand Prix International d’Urbanisme et d’Architecture’, Cannes, France *1984: Second Prize (of 198 participants) in the Oosterdock urban design competition *1985: Gepremieerd ontwerp voor een experimenteel woonhuis in de ontwerpprijsvraag De Fantasie’, bekend als ‘Polderblik’ te Almere *1991: First Prize design competition Gross Glienicke near Berlin, urban planning and construction of 105 homes *1994: First Prize design competition Central Zone Amsterdam Noord *1999: The Island Neighborhood in

Almere Buiten Almere Buiten is a district in the municipality of Almere in the Dutch province of Flevoland. The district houses 49,552 residents as of 2006. Almere Buiten is made up of the following neighbourhoods: Bloemenbuurt, Bouwmeesterbuurt, Eilandenbuur ...

was named best housing estate by the Netherlands ministry of housing, planning and environment *2000: First Prize design competition Westerdok Amsterdam (school and residential building) {{DEFAULTSORT:Koolhaas, Teun 1940 births 2007 deaths 20th-century Dutch architects 21st-century Dutch architects Delft University of Technology alumni Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni People from Singapore Urban designers World War II civilian prisoners held by Japan Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni