COOP HIMMELBLAU

Architecture must burnOpen-minded designs and undefined spaces of radical architecture"Coop Himmelb(l)au is not a color but an idea of creating architecture withfantasy, as buoyant and variable as clouds." So the architecture groupitself defines its name and design concept. Beginning with inflated bubblesand interactive installations in the 1960s, the group, consisting of thearchitects Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky and Michael Holzer, began tocreate harsh interventions in the urban context under the headline"architecture must burn." The designs of the buildings are like oversizedsound boxes, with dancing silhouettes and collapsing lines that are alwaysrushing and echoing. As one of only a few groups in those early times, theyare among the leading international architecture offices today, justifiedby their outstanding expressiveness and professionalism. Coop Himmelb(l)au's most well-known projects include the RooftopRemodeling Falkestrasse in Vienna, Austria (1988); the Groningen Museum,East Pavilion, in Groningen, Netherlands, (1994); the UFA Cinema Center inDresden, Germany, (1998); the BMW Welt in Munich, Germany (2007); the AkronArt Museum in Ohio, USA, (2007) and the Central Los Angeles Area HighSchool #9 of Visual and Performing Arts in Los Angeles, USA (2008). Among the recent projects that Coop Himmelb(l)au is pursuing throughoutthe world are the Museae des Confluences in Lyon, France, the House of Musicin Aalborg, Denmark, the European Central Bank's new headquarters inFrankfurt am Main, Germany, and the Dalian International Conference Centerin China.