Coop Himmelb(l)au: 7+ Projects

Photo © Tamás Bujnovszky

70 years, 7 projects, the 7 lives of an architect...

The Aedes exhibition of 7+ Projects by Coop Himmelb(l)au celebrates its founder Prof. Wolf D. Prix's 70th birthday. 

The magical number 7 has been integrated into the exhibition concept in a variety of ways. 

The exhibition begins with a backward glance at the founding year of 1968 and the world-renowned "Cloud" project which launched the Coop Himmelb(l)au story.

Photo courtesy Coop Himmelb(l)au

The exhibition proceeds with a detailed presentation of 7 buildings chosen by Wolf Prix, each from a different decade, and each with special significance for his oeuvre as a whole, before concluding with a foretaste of future projects.
 


Rooftop Remodeling Falkestraße (1983/1987-88)
Vienna, Austria


Photo courtesy Coop Himmelb(l)au

While designing, we envisioned a lightning bolt reversed and a taut arc. This space-creating taut arc - an element of our architecture that since 1980 has progressively become more important - is both the steel backbone of the project and its posture./ Wolf D. Prix

UFA Cinema Center (1993-98)   

Dresden, Germany         


Photo: Gerald Zugmann



Sketch courtesy Coop Himmelb(l)au


The design is characterized by two intricately interconnected building units: The Cinema Block, with eight cinemas and seating for 2600, and the Crystal, a glass shell which serves simultaneously as foyer and public square.
 

BMW Welt (2001-07)   
Munich, Germany             


Photo © 2007 Ari Marcopoulos

Sketch courtesy Coop Himmelb(l)au

The Double Cone visualizes the soaring dynamics of the building with its continuous transition into the seemingly floating roof. It takes the form of two leaning truncated cones with a rounded transition between them.
 

Martin Luther Church (2008-11)            

Hainburg, Austria


Photo © Duccio Malagamba


Sketch courtesy Coop Himmelb(l)au

The shape of the building is derived from that of a huge "table," with its entire roof construction resting on the legs of the "table" - four steel columns.
 

Busan Cinema Center (2005-2012)

Busan, South Korea

Photo © Duccio Malagamba 



Sketch courtesy Coop Himmelb(l)au

The urban zones defined by functional surfaces in plan are further articulated in a sectional dialogue between stone-clad "ground" forms of the Cinema Mountain and BIFF Hill, and the metal and LED clad "sky" elements of the roofs.

The Dalian International Conference Center opens this month, and the new building for the European Central Bank is under construction in Frankfurt.
 

Dalian International Conference Center (2008-12) 
Dalian, China

Photo courtesy Coop Himmelb(l)au


Photo courtesy Coop Himmelb(l)au

The cantilevering conference spaces that penetrate the facades create a spatially multifaceted building volume and differentiate the close surroundings. The various theaters and conference spaces are covered by a cone-shaped roof screen.
 

European Central Bank (2003-14)
Frankfurt/M., Germany


Photo courtesy Coop Himmelb(l)au


Photo courtesy Coop Himmelb(l)au


The ensemble is formed from three basic elements: the Grossmarkthalle, a groundscraper, and polygonal twin towers. The two towers are connected by a sky-lit atrium known as a "vertical city".

And finally, the cloud is back floating on pillars at the Musée des Confluences in Lyon, France, scheduled for completion in 2014.
 

Musée des Confluences (2001/2010-14) 
Lyon, France

Photo © Isochrom.com, Vienna

Sketch courtesy Coop Himmelb(l)au

Presented to viewers via large-scale models, sketches, construction plans and computer animations, the multifarious character of these materials provides a retrospective of more than 40 years of continuous architectural practice, joined by a highly personal forecast of the studio's future.

We think of our architecture as part of the 21st century; as art which reflects and gives a mirror image of the variety and vivacity, tension and complexity of our cities./ Wolf D. Prix

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