Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas has been appointed director of the architecture exhibitions at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale. British architect David Chipperfield directed the 2012 edition under the theme “Common Ground.”

“The architecture exhibitions of the Biennale have gradually grown in importance internationally,” states Paolo Baratta, President of the Board of Directors of the Venice Biennale. “Rem Koolhaas, one of the most significant personalities among the architects of our time, who has based all his work on intense research, now renowned celebrity, has accepted to engage himself in yet another research and, why not, rethinking.”

Koolhas says, “We want to take a fresh look at the fundamental elements of architecture—used by any architect, anywhere, anytime—to see if we can discover something new about architecture.”

Koolhaas was awarded the Pritzker Prize is 2000 and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2010 Biennale. Currently leading the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, his firm has designed projects around the world, including Seattle’s Central Library and the CCTV building in Beijing.

For more information, visit labiennale.org.