Wolf D. Prix in conversation with Jeffrey Kipnis

[Watch a live stream of the symposium here]

In 1968, three brash young architects in Austria came together to found COOP HIMMELB(L)AU. Forty years later, Wolf D. Prix still leads the firm he cofounded and continues to challenge and amaze with his innovative approach to architecture and urban planning. Join us as Prix discusses his career and recent projects with Jeffrey Kipnis, professor in Ohio State’s Knowlton School of Architecture and consulting curator for the exhibition COOP HIMMELB(L)AU: Beyond the Blue.

The talk is part of the opening festivities for three new exhibitions at the Wexner Center. The celebration lasts from 5 to 8 PM on Wednesday, April 1. The exhibitions remain on view until July 26, 2009. Admission to the galleries is $5 for the general public, and free for all Wexner Center members, visitors under age 18, and college students with ID. Wolf D. Prix, born in Vienna in 1942, is a cofounder of COOP HIMMELB(L)AU. He studied architecture at the Vienna University of Technology, the Architectural Association of London, and the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles.

Since 1993, Prix has been professor for architecture at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria. He has also served as head of the Institute for Architecture and as vice-rector of the University since 2003.

He taught as visiting professor at the Architectural Association in London in 1984 and at Harvard University in 1990. From 1985 to 1995, Prix was active as an adjunct professor at SCI-Arc. Since 1998, he has been a faculty member at Columbia University. In 1999, Prix was awarded the Harvey S. Perloff Professorship at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). In 2001, he was made an adjunct professor at UCLA and a Doctor Honoris Causa de la Universidad de Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

From 1995 to 1997, Prix was a member of the architectural committee in Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts. He is a member of the Austrian Art Senate, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the Advisory Committee for Building Culture. Furthermore, Prix is a member of the architectural associations in Austria, Germany, and Santa Clara, Cuba, as well as of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA). In 2006, he was the commissioner for the Austrian contribution to the Tenth International Architecture Biennale in Venice.

Wolf D. Prix has received numerous awards including the Award of the City of Vienna for Architecture in 1988, the German Architecture Prize and the Great Austrian State Award in 1999, and the Progressive Architecture Award (three times between 1988 and 1991). He was made an Officer de l’ordre des arts et des letters by the French government in 2002. In 2004 he received the Annie Spink Award for Excellence in Architectural Education for his commitment to teaching and training. In 2008, he was awarded with the Jencks Award: Visions Built prize.