Influences: Ewa Effiom and Rem Koolhaas’s ‘S, M, L, XL’

Depending on where you stand with regards to Rem Koolhaas, this could be quite an obvious choice but S, M, L, XL by Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau has been very influential on me. I’ve picked it even though Rem can sometimes be a difficult character because at the end of my first year in architecture school this 1,200-page information dump gave me an introduction to the breadth of architecture and its processes and an initial understanding of the importance of politics, economics and globalisation.

This 1,200-page information dump introduced me to the breadth of architecture

I know I’ll get some eye rolls for saying this, but decades after its release it still has a prominent place on my bookshelf. There is this thought today that architecture is limited to the process of getting a traditional building built, which I don’t necessarily agree with, and this book affirms that. Also, Rem’s whole cynical and amoral persona is still quite interesting to me because I think he genuinely believes it.

About Ewa

Ewa Effiom is an architect and writer. He completed a mechanical engineering degree at Manchester University, which he followed with his part 1 at the Manchester School of Architecture and an MA in architecture and urbanism, a course which he now tutors on. His MArch in architecture is also from the Manchester School of Architecture and he has PgDip in architecture and professional practice from Westminster University. You can follow him on twitter and instagram. Discover more of his work on his website: www.ewaeffiom.com