Archinect - News

When it comes to building in Russia, Wolf Prix has no guilty conscience

2022-04-12T16:37:00-04:00

If we have to take the moral standards and political correctness into account, then we should instead be talking about where you can then even build at all. Then I can’t build in Russia, and I can’t build in China or Saudi Arabia. I’m not allowed to build for the Church, either, because it is morally depraved. My question for you is this: What am I supposed to do now?

In an interview conducted by Susanne Beyer and Ulrike Knöfel, Wolf Prix claims to be no “moralist” and explains why he hasn’t withdrawn from three gigantic construction projects in Russia, even as other Prominent architecture firms voice intent to suspend work in Russia as statements of solidarity with Ukraine.

COOP HIMMELB(L)AU completes work on the Museum of Contemporary Art & Planning Exhibition in Shenzhen

2016-11-29T13:30:00-05:00

COOP HIMMELB(L)AU has completed work on the Museum of Contemporary Art & Planning Exhibition (MOCAPE), a major new cultural center in the Futian Cultural District of Shenzhen. The “monolithic” structure houses two separate institutions, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Planning Exhibition, under one roof, serving as a “cultural meeting point and a venue for architectural exhibitions”. The project completes the eastern part of a major master plan for central Shenzhen.

From the architects:

Both museums are designed as separate entities emphasizing their individual functional and artistic requirements and yet are merged in a monolithic body surrounded by a multifunctional facade. This transparent facade and a sophisticated internal lighting concept allow a deep view into the joint entrance and transitional areas between the buildings. From the inside, visitors are granted an unhindered view onto the city suggesting they are somewhere in a gently shaded outdoor area, an impressi...

Coop Himmelb(l)au compares campus redesign of the University of Applied Arts Vienna to a "prison courtyard"

2016-07-11T14:05:00-04:00

After the University of Applied Arts Vienna chose a winner for its campus redesign competition in 2012, the proposal is just now being made a reality—much to the disappointment of another prominent Viennese institution, Coop Himmelb(l)au.

The University selected Riepl Kaufmann Bammer Architecktur’s design for a major renovation and expansion of its current buildings, totaling 9,500 square meters of new space. On July 6, the University broke ground on the project, and on July 8, Coop Himmelb(l)au’s communications office sent out an email decrying the design, comparing it to a “prison courtyard” and asking “does it necessarily have to be the worst project which will now be realized?”:

Commonly, Architecture is understood to be a three-dimensional imprint of content. Following this view, the rendering – boastfully called “inwards facing campus” – looks rather like a prison courtyard. If that image was a reflection of the University of Applied Arts’ curricula, one should definitely be con...

The NYT takes a closer look at Coop Himmelb(l)au's new Confluence Museum in Lyon

2014-12-22T13:24:00-05:00

This fall, the French cultural season opened with the private Vuitton Foundation museum in Paris, a rarefied environment for a select collection of contemporary art, by Frank Gehry. At the other end of the cultural spectrum, France’s second largest metropolitan area, Lyon — arguably Paris’s historic rival, the Chicago to New York — just inaugurated the equally large and prepossessing Confluence Museum (the Musée des Confluences).

Wolf D. Prix reflects on Raimund Abraham, as both friend and visionary

2014-03-07T11:02:00-05:00

Wolf D. Prix of Coop Himmelb(l)au gave the 4th annual Raimund Abraham memorial lecture this past Wednesday night at SCI-Arc, honoring Abraham with a congenial discussion of his friend and peer’s work. When Prix first started Coop Himmelb(l)au over 45 years ago, Abraham served as a strong influence, and the two developed a strong (if not somewhat combative) relationship as co-conspirators and fellow Austrians. Prix’s lecture reflected on a variety of Abraham’s work, alongside pieces from Günther Domenig, Hans Hollein, Walter Pilcher and others.

After Eric Owen Moss’s introduction, describing both Prix and Abraham as “those who lived on an island where no one else lived”, Wolf’s lecture focused on the lasting futurism of Abraham’s work and its continuing relevance in the context of a digital society. While so few of his designs were built, his drawings’ “were architecture -- why do we have to build these buildings if they’re already described so perfectly?”. Prix touched upon the conce...