Wolf Dieter Prix is an Austrian architect. In 1968 he co-founded the architects' cooperative

Coop Himmelb(l)au Coop Himmelb(l)au (a pun meaning '' Coop Sky Building'' and ''Coop Sky Blue'') is an architecture, urban planning, design and art firm founded in 1968 by Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky and Michael Holzer in Vienna, Austria. History Coop Hi ...

, which has an international reputation as an important representative of

deconstructivism Deconstructivism is a postmodern architecture, postmodern architectural movement which appeared in the 1980s. It gives the impression of the fragmentation of the constructed building, commonly characterised by an absence of obvious harmony, ...

Life

Early life

Wolf Prix's father was an architect; Wolf looked over his father's shoulder in the office. He went to the museum with him and asked: “Why don’t we finish the

Tower of Babel The Tower of Babel is an origin myth and parable in the Book of Genesis (chapter 11) meant to explain the existence of different languages and cultures. According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language migrates to Shin ...

?” The visit of the

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or t ...

La Tourette (designed by

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...

), located near

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, was his inspiration to study

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

Education

Wolf Prix studied at the

Vienna University of Technology TU Wien () is a public research university in Vienna, Austria. The university's teaching and research are focused on engineering, computer science, and natural sciences. It currently has about 28,100 students (29% women), eight faculties, and ...

, the

Architectural Association The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, commonly referred to as the AA, is the oldest private school of architecture in the UK. The AA hosts exhibitions, lectures, symposia and publications. History The Architectura ...

in London and the

Southern California Institute of Architecture Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is a private architecture school in Los Angeles, California. SCI-Arc was founded in 1972 when it was initially regarded as both institutionally and artistically avant-garde. It consists o ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

Career

In 1968 he founded the Viennese architects' cooperative Himmelb(l)au together with Helmut Swiczinsky and Michael Holzer. Since Holzer (1971) and Swiczinsky (2001) left the office, Prix is the only remaining founding partner of the office. He currently heads it as Design Principal and managing director. In 2006 he was commissioner for the Austrian pavilion at the 10th Venice Architecture Biennale.

Teaching

He taught as a visiting professor at the Architectural Association in London in 1984 and in 1990 at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. From 1985 to 1995 Prix was adjunct professor at the

SCI-Arc Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is a private architecture school in Los Angeles, California. SCI-Arc was founded in 1972 when it was initially regarded as both institutionally and artistically avant-garde. It consists of ...

in Los Angeles. In 1993 he was appointed full professor for architectural design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. From 2003 to 2012 he was a board member at the Institute for Architecture, head of the Studio Prix and vice-rector of the university. He has been a faculty member at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

since 1998. At the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) he took over the Harvey S. Perloff Chair in 1999 and a visiting professorship in 2001.

Memberships

From 1995 to 1997, Wolf Prix was a member of the architecture advisory board at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Science and Research. He is a member of the Austrian Art Senate, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and the advisory board for Building Culture. He is also a member of the Austrian Chamber of Architects, the Santa Clara Chamber of Architects in Cuba, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Italian Chamber of Architects. He is an honorary member of the Association of German Architects BDA.

Awards

Wolf Prix has received numerous awards, such as the City of Vienna Prize for Architecture in 1988, the New York Progressive Architecture Award three times from 1989 to 1991 and the

Grand Austrian State Prize The Grand Austrian State Prize () is a decoration given annually by Austria to an artist for exceptional work. The recipient must be an Austrian citizen with a permanent residence in Austria. It was originally created in 1950 by then education mi ...

for Architecture in 1999. In 2001 he received an honorary doctorate from the Universidad de Palermo in Buenos Aires, and in 2002 the

Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria The Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria () is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria. It is divided into 15 classes and is the highest award in the Austrian national honours system. History The Decoration of Hono ...

for Services to the State of Vienna. In 2002 he became an officer of the French . In 2004 he received the Annie Spink Award for Excellence in Architectural Education for his commitment to education and teaching, in 2008 the Jencks Award for his special contribution to architecture in theory and practice and the

RIBA European Award RIBA European Awards are part of an award program by the Royal Institute of British Architects. Complemented by the RIBA National and International Awards, it rewards "the excellent work being done by RIBA members in the European Union outside the ...

for ''BMW World''. The Federal Austrian President Heinz Fischer awarded him in May 2009 the

Austrian Decoration for Science and Art The Austrian Decoration for Science and Art () is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria and forms part of the Orders, decorations, and medals of Austria, Austrian national honours system. History The "Austrian Decoration for Science a ...

in recognition of his outstanding creative achievements. In 2011 he was made

honorary citizenship Honorary citizenship is a status bestowed by a city or other government on a foreign or native individual whom it considers to be especially admirable or otherwise worthy of the distinction. The honor usually is symbolic and does not confer an ...

of the city of

Busan Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. 2013 he received the

Hessian Cultural Prize The Hessian Cultural Prize () is an annual German culture prize awarded by the Government of Hesse. The prize was established in 1982. With a trophy of 60,000 German marks, now 45,000 Euro, it is currently the highest endowed culture prize in Germ ...

(master builder of dreams). 2021 Prix got the ''Lifetime Achievement Award'' from

ACADIA Acadia (; ) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the The Maritimes, Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. The population of Acadia included the various ...

Exhibitions

* 1988: ''Deconstructivist Architecture exhibition'' at

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

MoMA New York * 2012: Coop Himmelb(l)au: 7+, Aedes am Pfefferberg,

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Literature (selection)

* Gert Winkler: Coop Himmelblau (you live in Vienna). An exhibition and a book. Peter Welermair, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck 1975 Catalog list Austrian National Library * Graz University of Technology; Gallery H: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU. Architecture has to burn. Graz 1980 * COOP HIMMELB (L) AU. Architecture is now. Hatje Cantz,

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

; Rizzoli, New York; Thames & Hudson, London 1993 * Gallery Aedes: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU. Skyline. Project for the Hamburg Bauforum 1985. Berlin 1984 * Gallery Aedes: Open Architecture. Berlin 1984 * Architectural gallery: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU. Open architecture. Housing complex Vienna 2. Munich 1986 * Philip Johnson, Mark Wigley: Deconstructivist Architecture. The Museum of Modern Art, New York 1988 * Architectural Association London: COOP HIMMELB (L) AU. Blue box. Folio XXIII, London 1988 * COOP HIMMELB(L)AU. 6 Projects for 4 Cities. Catalog Recent Work. Jürgen Häusser Verlag, Darmstadt 1990 * Aedes Gallery and Architecture Forum: Hans Hollein - COOP HIMMELB (L) AU. Mission statement Expo '95 Vienna. Berlin 1990 * Oliver Gruenberg, Robert Hahn, Doris Knecht: COOP HIMMELBLAU. The fascination of the city. 2nd edition, Jürgen Häusser Verlag, Darmstadt 1992 * Center Georges Pompidou: COOP HIMMELB (L) AU. Construire le ciel. Paris 1992 * Museum of Contemporary Art: Paradise Cage. Los Angeles 1996 * Gudrun Hausegger, Martina Kandeler-Fritsch: Wolf D. Prix Helmut Swiczinsky. COOP HIMMELB(L)AU Austria. Biennale di Venezia 1996, Sixth International Exhibition of Architecture. Ritter Verlag, Klagenfurt 1996 * Kristin Feireiss; Jürgen Commerell: COOP HIMMELB (L) AU. The Vienna Trilogy + One Cinema. Three Residential Buildings in Vienna and a Cinema in Dresden. Berlin 1999 * Peter Noever: Gerald Zugmann - Blue Universe. Transforming Models into Pictures. Architectural Projects by COOP HIMMELB (L) AU. Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit 2002 * Martina Kandeler-Fritsch, Thomas Kramer: Get Off of My Cloud. Wolf D. Prix. Coop Himmelb (l) au. Texts 1968–2005. Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit 2005 * Kristin Feireiss: Dynamic Forces. COOP HIMMELB (L) AU. BMW World Munich. Prestel Verlag, Munich, Berlin, London, New York 2007, ISBN 978-3-7913-3875-0. * Peter Noever: COOP HIMMELB (L) AU. Beyond the blue. Prestel, Munich / Berlin / London / New York 2007, ISBN 978-3-7913-3962-7. * Sylvia Lavin: Central Los Angeles Area High School # 9 for the visual and performing arts, HS # 9 / CoopHimmelb(l)au. Essay. (Text: Karolin Schmidbaur); Prestel, Munich / Berlin / London / New York 2010, ISBN 978-3-7913-4433-1. * Wolf D. Prix,

, Kristin Feireiss, Günther Feuerstein,

Thom Mayne Thom Mayne (born January 19, 1944) is an American architect. He is based in Los Angeles. In 1972, Mayne helped found the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), where he is a trustee and the coordinator of the Design of Cities po ...

Out of the Clouds. Wolf dPrix: Sketches 1967–2020
Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel / Berlin / Boston 2022, ISBN 978-3-03562-532-5.

References

External links

* *
Coop Himmelb(l)au-Website

WOLF PRIX, COOP HIMMELB(L)AU: "Architecture is YES!"

Mittagsjournal 1995.06.03

Coop Himmelblau, Wien; Offene Architektur / Open Architecture
* Authority data (person): GND: 119305712 , LCCN: nr92000305 , VIAF: 15031103 , Wikipedia people search {{DEFAULTSORT:Prix, Wolf Dieter Modernist architects from Austria Architects from Vienna Honorary Fellows of the American Institute of Architects Coop Himmelblau Columbia University faculty University of California, Los Angeles faculty Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts 1942 births Living people