Wolf D. Prix
During the last Masters of Architecture on-line lecture before summer holidays, we have met Wolf D. Prix – an Austrian architect who made a big contribution to the development of deconstructivism. The major idea of this movement was a desire to move architecture away from the supposedly constricting ‘rules’ of modernism, such as “form follows function," “purity of form," and “truth to materials." Deconstructivists experimented with curves and various construction coverings, aiming for a “controlled chaos”, disorder of a typical solid and framework.
In 1968 in Vienna, Wolf D. Prix established the Coop Himmelblau. This German name can be translated as “Blue-Sky Cooperative”. In the 80s, the letter “l” has been put in parentheses, which created a wordplay Coop Himmelb(l)au. That changed the meaning of office’s name into “Sky Building”. For 40 years, Coop Himmelb(l)au designs buildings that arouse much emotions and win prestigious awards. Among the best-known are: Musée des Confluences in Lyon, Museum of Contemporary Art in Shenzhen, China or PANEUM in Asten, Upper Austria.
