Established in 1968 in Vienna, their utopian visions transcending the weight and scale of architecture, seemingly floating and brimming with wit, COOP HIMMELB(L)AU quickly became stars of the technologically and socially progressive 1960s. In the more than 40 years since, both their perspective on architecture as a medium connected to and extending the body, space, environment, the city, and their practice in actual architecture, and the architectural experience have remained in constant evolution.
Now in the 21st century, the evolution of architecture, from materials to structural calculation has served to facilitate COOP HIMMELB(L)AU's original architectural vision. The technology has at long last caught up with their original conceptual framework, as demonstrated by the large-scale projects they are realizing around the globe.
Their work, almost like air currents visualized, these dynamic forms seemingly liberated from gravity, these spaces which merge interior and exterior via their use of glass structure... the architecture they've realized, functional yet sculpturally advanced, are open spaces of perceptual stimulation and awareness for each visitor. Today, as society aspires to a greater co-existence between urban and natural environments, and the development of data networks, COOP HIMMELB(L)AU continue to raise a new relational potential between the individual and architecture.
In this exhibition, our attention is focused on two of COOP HIMMELB(L)AU's latest architectural experiments, new projects which connect the worlds of art and science. The first of these is the 1969 experimental work finally realized in 2008, "Astro Balloon 1969 Revisited-Feedback Space." It is a real-time interactive installation which responds to the visitors' heartbeats. The second is "Brain City Lab," an installation whose point of departure is their recent interdisciplinary research into affinities between the generative aspects of neural networks and urban environments. Both were presented, and much discussed, at the 11th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (2008). This is the first presentation to follow, in the latest versions of these works. Through introducing these projects, of "architecture made by people," the viewer will enjoy encounters with both the leading-edge visions of the FUTURE which COOP HIMMELB(L)AU have pursued since 1968, and also with how they've now REVISITED futures past.
COOP HIMMELB(L)AU: FUTURE REVISITED Project Team
Planning: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU Wolf D. Prix / W. Dreibholz & Partner ZT GmbH
Design Principal: Wolf D. PRIX
Project Partner: Markus PILLHOFER
Project Manager: Felix GMEINER
Designer: Thomas HINDELANG
Director of Communications: Cynthia KALLMEYER
Team Communications: Volker GESSENDORFER, Isabelle OST, Nora SCHLKÖGL
Graphics: Timo RIEKE, Vanessa CASTRO
Archive: Caroline ECKER
Assistance: Ivo de NOOIJER
Model: Paul HOSZOWSKI, Nam LA-CHI, Sebastian BUCHTA
3D/Milling: Lukas GALEHR, Anna STÜRTZENBECHER
Logistics: Paul BIERNAT
Technical Production and Visualisation: Conceptual Art Technologies | cat-x, Vienna, Austria
Florian PRIX, Hannes KÖCHER, Günther SCHIEBECK
Consultants: Artex, Artex Art Services, Vienna, Austria
Schultes, Schultes Pneus, Vienna, Austria
