Rem Koolhaas releases pro-EU video essay for The Guardian

London-based Dutch architectural giant Rem Koolhaas has taken to the pages of The Guardian to air his grievances about Brexit. Sort of.

Back in 2018 the author of Elements of Architecture hooked up with fellow architect Stephan Petermann and photography giant Wolfgang Tillmans to launch a series of co-operative workshops under the banner Eurolab. The aim was to examine “what has gone wrong in the communication of, and about the EU and how to make a new and powerful beginning” in the wake of Brexit.

Here in the present day, we’re no closer to knowing how Brexit will shape up, and with European elections taking place this coming Thursday (23 May), Koolhaas’ thoughts turn to the continent once more.

“In the current media landscape I think that there is a real shortage of concise, understandable and appealingly designed information,” writes the architect in today’s edition of the broadsheet paper. “For the first time in my life I don’t understand what is going on in Britain,” Koolhaas says.

With that in mind, the Harvard professor has put together a video which explains a few of the reasons why staying in the warm embrace of the European Union probably works best for all of us in the long run. The visual essay made in collaboration with Petermann begins by informing us that as tax-payers, membership to the EU costs the same as a monthly subscription to Netflix. Is it worth it, though?

Koolhass and Petermann evidently think so and they also evidently reckon they’ve got the stats to back them up. Over the course of four minutes they present us with a barrage of facts and figures that all scream the possible regrets of deciding to leave the EU.