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Wolfgang Tschapeller awarded 2020 European Prize for Architecture

2020-10-19T14:11:00-04:00

Famed Austrian architect, architectural philosopher, academic, and theorist, Wolfgang Tschapeller has been awarded the prestigious European Prize for Architecture. An annual award is given to living architects whose work reflects and exemplifies the "highest ideals of European civilization and embodies vision, commitment, and a profound respect for humanity and for the social and physical environment."

See-through floors at new Cornell Fine Arts Library alienate users. Image courtesy of STV.

Presented by The Chicago Athenaeum president Christian Narkiewicz-Laine shares, "Wolfgang Tschapeller's works are stunning, dense, multifarious, complex, and remarkable achievements of the highest complexity."

Born in Dölsach, Austria, Tschapeller trained initially as a carpenter, then studied architecture at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and received his Masters of Architecture from Cornell University. His practice Wolfgang Tschapeller ZT GmbH opened in 2007 (now Wolfgang Tschapeller ...

Stacked: Archinect's comparison of Fujimoto and Tschapeller's library stacks

2015-08-13T20:53:00-04:00

Instead of being mainly a weight distribution problem for architects, library book stacks are increasingly becoming art installations in cavernous contemplation halls. This is especially evident in Wolfgang Tschapeller's renderings for the Ho Fine Arts Library at Cornell University, in which an ascending, four-story block of books is selectively accessed through staircases (see header image).

Sou Fujimoto takes a slightly different tack, creating a maze-like series of largely empty bookshelves that showcase the winding quest for knowledge more than the actual books they are ostensibly designed to hold.

So which design is more effective, both in terms of reflecting the changing nature of how we access books and of creating spaces for contemplation and study? Fujimoto has the advantage here; he is designing a completely new building. His agility with blurring boundaries between indoors and out is exquisitely realized, creating an airy, if labyrinthine, experience.

Tschapeller, on the o...

Editor's Picks #254

2012-03-11T22:49:00-04:00

Viennese architectural firm Wolfgang Tschapeller ZT GmbH won the First Prize in an international competition that seeks to overhaul the campus of the Angewandte, a group of buildings that house the University of Applied Arts, as well as the Museum for Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria. johnszot commented "fucking hot, that".

Evan Chakroff writes about the work of the recent Pritzker Prize winner Wang Shu suggesting the selection continues a trend in which "the Pritzker Committee has gravitated towards architects who produce work with an innate understanding of place, allowing their ties to local culture to infuse their work" in the essay Amateur Architecture: A New Vernacular?

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In advance of the World Cup and Olympic Games authorities in Rio de Janeiro are clearing people from their homes in Vila Autódromo and other favelas, preparing the areas for redevelopment. Will Galloway believed "it would be cool if they followed the lead of medellin instead. i have not heard any complaints about what was done there. anyone know if there was a downside?"