Wolf D. Prix
Born in 1942 in Vienna, is founding partner, Design Principal and CEO of COOP HIMMELB(L)AU. He studied architecture at the Vienna University of Technology, the Architectural Association of London as well as at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles.
Amongst others, Wolf D. Prix is a member of the Österreichische Bundeskammer der Architekten und Ingenieurkonsulenten, the Bund Deutscher Architekten, Germany (BDA), the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the Architectural Association Santa Clara, Cuba, and Fellow of the American Institute of Architecture (FAIA).
Wolf D. Prix received numerous awards including the Grand Austrian State Award and the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art. He is a permanent member of the Austrian Art Senate and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts as well as honorary member of the Österreich | Deutschland | Gesellschaft since May, 2017. Prix is a chairman of the Curia for Art since autumn 2014.
Wolf D. Prix ranks among the co-founders of the deconstructivist architecture movement, just as the Austrian architect Hans Hollein was a co-founder of postmodernism. COOP HIMMELB(L)AU had its international breakthrough with the invitation to the exhibition „Deconstructivist Architecture“ at MoMA New York in 1988. Amongst numerous international exhibitions, the office was invited eight times to participate in the Venice Architecture Biennale.
COOP HIMMELB(L)AU was founded in Vienna in 1968 and has since then been operating under the direction of CEO and Design Principal Wolf D. Prix and the partner Harald Krieger (CFO), Karolin Schmidbaur, Markus Prossnigg, Alexander Ott und Benjamin Schmidt in the fields of art, architecture, urban planning, and design. Another branch of the firm was opened in the United States in 1988 in Los Angeles. COOP HIMMELB(L)AU currently employs between 50 and 100 people from 15 different countries. In numerous countries the team has realized museums, concert halls, science and office buildings as well as residential buildings. Presently COOP HIMMELB(L)AU is working on various projects in Europe, Asia, Russia and the Middle East.
The company’s most well-known international projects include the Falkestrasse attic conversion in Vienna, the multifunctional UFA Cinema Center in Dresden, the BMW Welt in Munich, the Akron Art Museum in Ohio, the Central Los Angeles Area High School #9 for the Visual and Performing Arts, the Busan Cinema Center in Korea and the Dalian International Conference Center in China and the House of Music in Aalborg, Denmark. Recently have been completed the Musée des Confluences in Lyon, France, the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt/Main, Germany, the Museum of Contemporary Art & Planning Exhibition (MOCAPE) in Shenzhen, China, and the PANEUM – Wunderkammer des Brotes in Asten, Austria.
