Wolf dPrix: LOVE, PEACE & ICE CREAM

Wolf dPrix is the co-founder, CEO and design principal of COOP HIMMELB(L)AU, a studio that is recognized around the world for its innovative, and complex approach to design at the intersection of architecture, art and technology. He is considered one of the originators of the deconstructivist architecture movement. Throughout his career, Wolf dPrix has remained active in education and academic life. He has held teaching positions at the University of Applied Arts, the Architectural Association (AA), MIT, Harvard, Columbia, UCLA, Yale and PENN, as well as the SCI-Arc and other institutions around the world. His distinguished honors include two of the highest Austrian awards for cultural achievements: the Grand Austrian State Prize and the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art. He is a member of the Austrian Arts Senate and the Curia for Art (from 2014 – 2025 chairman). His additional awards include, among others: the Schelling Architecture Award, the Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Annie Spink Award, the Jencks Award, the Hessian Cultural Prize, the Digital Futures Project Award, the ACADIA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the UNIBE Excellence Award. He was chosen as one of “100 Architects of the Year 2024” by the Korean Institute of Architects.

His work is shown in permanent exhibitions at institutions such as the Getty Foundation, the MAK Museum of Applied Arts, and the Centre Georges Pompidou. In 2006 Wolf dPrix was the commissioner for the Austrian contribution to the 10th Venice Biennale. Overall, the studio has been invited eight times to participate in the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Coop Himmelb(l)au has a very specific method of designing. In this lecture, we will discuss how this has developed since 1968 through our most recent projects. The illustration of the Studio’s philosophy and the very specific method of designing led to iconic projects such as BMW Welt, Dalian Conference Center, European Central Bank, Musée des Confluences, Museum of Contemporary Art & Planning Exhibition (MOCAPE), the Bengaluru Sky Tower and most recently the SCA Arena Sports and Concert Complex in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Central Bank of Azerbaijan in Baku and the concept design for Al Maktoum International Airport, the world’s largest airport, in Dubai.

In this lecture, we will discuss the evolution of the studio’s philosophy from 1968 to the present. Since 2017, the studio has been working with its in-house AI Deep Himmelblau. Coop Himmelb(l)au’s perceptions and our conscious visual representations of reality do not directly map of the real world. Rather, humans interpret reality through reconstructions and interpretations based on past experiences. Our past experiences act as a frame/filter on our way of interpreting, understanding, and perceiving the real world. Our training as architects operates as a filter/ frame in the way we perceive the world, the way we interpret it, and the way we draw inspiration from it.

For Coop Himmelb(l)au time is the 4th dimension, and space is the quality. Pictures, renderings, animations, and movies. Music!