Theory
The Generic City
Explore in the Atlas →Rem Koolhaas's portrait of the placeless, history-shedding metropolis of late globalisation — a city without identity or centre, defined by the airport, the highway, the office tower and air conditioning, endlessly repeated and freed from the burden of authenticity.
Settlement Exchange
Details
- Introduced
- 1990s
Classifications
- Holder
- Individual
- Source of authority
- Observation
- Subject
- Human centred
- Mode of transmission
- Text drawing
- Knowledge type
- Propositional
- Epistemic cluster
- Western philosophical
Connections
- relates to Non-Place
Referenced by
- Rem Koolhaas proposed
- Bigness relates to
- The Decorated Shed and the Duck relates to
Sources
- Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau. The Generic City (in S,M,L,XL). The Monacelli Press, 1995.
Cite this entry
First published May 2026Last revised Jul 2026
CLAD. "The Generic City." Atlas of Architectural Thought. CLAD, 2026. https://www.cl-ad.com.au/research/atlas/theory/generic-city/. Accessed September 1, 2026.