COOP HIMMELB(L)AU - Website
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COOP HIMMELB(L)AU - History
COOP HIMMELB(L)AU was founded by Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky and Michael Holzer in Vienna, Austria in 1968, and is active in architecture, urban planning, design, and art. In 1988, a second office was opened in Los Angeles, USA.
Renowned and current projects
COOP HIMMELB(L)AU’s most well-known projects include: the Rooftop Remodeling Falkestraße in Vienna (1988); the “master plan” for the City of Melun-Sénart in France; the Groninger Museum, East Pavilion in Groningen (1994) in the Netherlands; the design for the EXPO.02 - Forum Arteplage in Biel, Switzerland; as well as the multifunctional UFA Cinema Center in Dresden, Germany (1998); and the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Germany (2005). We have realized further key projects in Vienna in the past years, including the SEG Apartment Tower (1998), followed by the SEG Apartment Block Remise (2000); the Apartment Building Gasometer B (2001); and the Apartment and Office Building, Schlachthausgasse (2005). Among the recent projects that our studio is pursuing throughout the world is the Akron Art Museum, Ohio, USA, which will be completed in the summer of 2007. Also worthy of mention is the BMW Welt in Munich, Germany, which will open in autumn of 2007. Additionally, the Central Los Angeles Area High School #9 of Visual and Performing Arts in Los Angeles, is slated for 2008; the Musée des Confluences in Lyon, France for 2009; and the House of Music in Aalborg, Denmark for 2009. In 2004, COOP HIMMELB(L)AU won first prize for the design of the building for the European Central Bank’s new headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, which is set for completion in 2011. In 2005, the jury for the competition to design the Busan Cinema Complex in Busan, South Korea (2010) again selected COOP HIMMELB(L)AU. And in 2006, our studio won first prize in a competition for the expansion and new development of the Cloud Roof exhibition center in Riva del Garda, Italy (2009).
Honors and awards
Over the course of the past three decades, COOP HIMMELB(L)AU has received numerous international awards. These include: the Förderungspreis für Baukunst, Berlin (1982), the Award of the City of Vienna for Architecture (1988), the Erich Schelling Architektur Preis (1992), the P. A. Award (1989, 1990, and 1991), the Großer Österreichischer Staatspreis (1999) as well as the European Steel Design Award (2001). In December 2002, COOP HIMMELB(L)AU was made Officier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres and was awarded the Ehrenzeichen für Verdienste um das Land Wien. In 2005, for the design of the Akron Art Museum, our office received the American Architecture Award. Our office was awarded the 2007 International Architecture Award for four projects: for the Busan Cinema Complex, the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, the Great Egyptian Museum at the pyramids in Giza, and the Space of Contemporary Artistic Creation in Cordoba.
Exhibitions
Recognized as seminal for the architecture of the future, the works of COOP HIMMELB(L)AU have continually been the subject of international exhibitions. Among the largest and most widely known are the solo retrospectives Construire le Ciel in 1992 at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France, and the exhibition entitled Deconstructivist Architecture held in 1988 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, under the curatorship of Philip Johnson. Internationally renowned institutions such as the Getty Foundation in Los Angeles, the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art (MAK) in Vienna and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris display the works of COOP HIMMELB(L)AU as part of their permanent exhibitions. In 1996, COOP HIMMELB(L)AU was invited to serve as the Austrian representative to the Sixth International Architecture Exhibition Biennale in Venice, Italy. Since then, our studio has been a regular participant, presenting several projects such as the Musée des Confluences and the Guangzhou Opera House. The Musée des Confluences in Lyon was additionally shown at the Latent Utopias exhibition in Graz, Austria, from October 2002 to March 2003. COOP HIMMELB(L)AU has also been presented on several occasions at the Aedes East Gallery in Berlin, for example, at well-known shows such as Skyline in 1985, The Vienna Trilogy + One Cinema in 1998, and the exhibition on the competition for the BMW Event and Delivery Center in 2002. In the same year, COOP HIMMELB(L)AU was also present at the International Architecture Exhibition Biennale in Venice, Italy with the projects BMW Welt and a design for the new World Trade Center. In December 2007, our studio will be featured in the exhibition Beyond the Blue at the MAK in Vienna.Last but not least, COOP HIMMELB(L)AU has also designed several exhibitions. Among their best known works are Paradise Cage: Kiki Smith and COOP HIMMELB(L)AU, shown in 1996 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and in 2000 Rudi Gernreich: Fashion will go out of fashion, for the Steirischer Herbst festival in Graz, Austria, which also traveled to Philadelphia, USA.
© COOP HIMMELB(L)AU 2005, 2006, 2007