Wolf D. Prix: “We need the architect partisans”
After three months of trying to organise an interview with Mr. Wolf Prix, he finally phoned RENDERU.COM from Vienna during a short break between meetings and project designing. Wolf D. Prix (born in 1942) is co-founder, Design Principal and CEO of COOP HIMMELB(L)AU. The company name translates from German as either “Blue Sky Cooperative”, or “Heaven Building/Construction Cooperative”, and one glance at Coop’s projects is enough to justify its name: the bizarrely shaped buildings look as if they levitate in the air.
We originally planned to speak to Mr. Prix about the Dawang Mountain Resort project: a futuristic hotel that is now under construction in China, positioned on the top of a historical cement mining quarry pit and lake. The project includes a water park, an indoor ski slope, and a 60m high waterfall that lands in the quarry pit. Mr. Prix said, 'The most exciting thing for me is that the whole building is seemingly placed on only one column’. However, the eccentric architect then switched to a topic that obviously interested him much more: the way in which modern architecture is developing.
Dawang Mountain Resort project, China © COOP HIMMELB(L)AU
RENDERU.COM: Mr Prix, you have said in other interviews that your architecture somewhat fights against gravity. What did you mean by this?
Wolf Prix: Not fighting: ignoring. This is an old dream of architects: to ignore gravity. Look at the gothic cathedrals; they [the architects] wanted to build them as high as it was “not” possible. Moreover, in Le Corbusier’s chair, the body must take the same position that astronauts are taking when they overcome gravity. There is certainly a dream when designing buildings to overcome gravity.
Dawang Mountain Resort under construction © Szeto Wing
RENDERU.COM: In your opinion, how close are you to fulfilling this dream?
W.P.: Sooner or later... We are building now what we were dreaming about 40-60 years ago. We can build it now because of the computer programs and robotics, so maybe in 60 years from now we will be able to build a real floating cloud.
RENDERU.COM: Can you tell us about designing the Dawang Mountain Resort?
W.P.: Everyone wants to hear that from me: how I create my projects. It’s a creative process, and you cannot describe it: there is no recipe. The students want to know how I do it, the journalists want to know, and the clients want to know. Sometimes it comes when I’m driving fast in my car, but I can’t really describe it. I can only tell you about the rational part; we study the site environment, the wind, seismic activity, everything.
Dalian International Conference Center, China © Photography: Shu He
RENDERU.COM: Speaking of rational things: what is your opinion on the new Chinese guidelines on urban planning that forbids the construction of "bizarre", and "odd-shaped" buildings? Would this influence your work there?
W.P.: Yes, for sure. I think it’s a step back, and architecture is already pushing itself back. Why do I think so? Look at the projects that are winning competitions now: they are boxes, and they are not innovative anymore. They are not pushing an envelope. They are just fulfilling the wishes of conservative clients.
Musée des Confluences, Lyon, France © Duccio Malagamba
Museum of Contemporary Art & Planning Exhibition (MOCAPE) ©Julien Lanoo
W.P.:
Can you imagine if Shakespeare had written
Hamlet in a minimalistic style? It would sound like this: “The Ghost appears to Hamlet. Hamlet kills Claudius and it’s over”. This is a minimalistic story about Hamlet, and architecture is going the same way. I call it “twittecture”: a mixture between twitter and architecture. Our profession is over.
RENDERU.COM: That seems very pessimistic. Especially for young architects.
W.P.: I am an optimistic pessimist. Architecture is going backwards in terms of aesthetic. It is a sign of dangerous conservative times. However, I am hopeful for the young architects who are at school now. I think the schools have a huge duty now. They have to train the architect partisans who will survive and then fight against this stupid conservatism, and push the envelope again. If you are going backwards, you are going to a grave. You have to move on, and investigate new things, new ideas, and new building methods: that’s the call to the young architects, not building stupid huts.
European Central Bank (ECB), Germany © Paul Raftery
RENDERU.COM: Can you share with us what it is that you are working now on?
W.P.: Right now, you interrupted my thinking on a little museum in Romania that we are working on it. If I could describe it, I wouldn’t have to draw it.
We decided not to distract Wolf Prix from his thoughts for any longer. Perhaps the next project by “Blue Sky Cooperative” will be one step closer to fulfilling the architects’ old dream.