This event is at full capacity. Registration is now closed.

Since his first visits to Dubai and Kuwait in the early 2000s, architect and author Rem Koolhaas has pursued a deeper understanding of the contexts that shape architectural practice in Gulf cities. In 2026, it will be twenty years since Koolhaas and OMA/AMO presented The Gulf at the Venice Architecture Biennale, one of the first moments the region was framed as a single urbanising coastline. This work on regional cities continued through collaborations with Pink Tank (Dubai) and Volume magazine (Amsterdam), resulting in the seminal volumes Al Manakh (2007) and Al Manakh 2: Gulf Continued (2010). Alongside a host of publications and exhibitions, OMA has completed projects in the region, ranging from Qatar National Library and Qatar Foundation Headquarters to Concrete at Alserkal Avenue, as well as several master plan studies across Qatar, the UAE, and Kuwait. The firm’s exhibition Countryside: A Place to Live, Not to Leave is currently on view in Doha until June 30, 2026.

For this evening’s programme, Rem Koolhaas joins architect Tala Gharaglozlou for a conversation on his two decades of examining, questioning and working within Dubai and Gulf cities: how the region has shaped his approaches to architecture, how it has influenced the global practice more broadly and what ongoing work at OMA continues to emerge from these engagements.

Architecture after The Gulf  is part of Night School 2026 | Pardon Our Progress, a five-week programme of seminars and public events led by Todd Reisz and dedicated to encounters with urbanism and history in Dubai. Learn more about the programme here.

Rem Koolhaas founded OMA in 1975 together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp. In 1978, he 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 Pont Simone Veil in Bordeaux (2024), Taipei Performing Arts Center (2022), Axel Springer Campus in Berlin (2020), the Qatar National Library (2017), Fondation Galeries Lafayette Anticipation in Paris (2018), Fondazione Prada in Milan (2015/2018), the headquarters for China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing (2012). and Seattle Central Library (2004). He 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 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Tala Gharagozlou is an architectural designer engaged in both professional practice and research. Her practice is currently divided between projects with museums such as the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and the Louvre in Paris and residential adaptive reuse projects in Dubai. She was a technical reviewer for the 16th Award Cycle (2023–2025) of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. She also collaborates at NYUAD with colleagues in visual arts, performance, theater and urbanism. She started her career working for Frank Gehry in Los Angeles, moving on to interior and exhibition design in Paris and commercial projects in London with the Soho House Group as lead architect. She was the editor of the Yale architectural journal Perspecta 44: Domain (MIT Press, 2011).