Coop Himmelb(l)au is an architecture, urban planning, design and art practice founded in Vienna in 1968 by Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky and Michael Holzer. Its name is a pun on "sky building" and "sky blue". Its work was shown in the Museum of Modern Art's 1988 "Deconstructivist Architecture" exhibition, curated by Philip Johnson and Mark Wigley, and the firm has been counted among the deconstructivists ever since.
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At the Groninger Museum (1994), it designed a pale blue deconstructivist pavilion beside others by Philippe Starck and Alessandro Mendini. Gasometer B in Vienna (2001) turns a 1890s gas holder into flats, offices and shops. BMW Welt in Munich (2007), a delivery and exhibition centre with an 800-kilowatt solar plant on its roof. The Busan Cinema Center in South Korea (2011) holds the Guinness World Record for the longest cantilevered roof. The Musée des Confluences in Lyon (2014) has been likened to a floating crystal cloud of stainless steel and glass, and the European Central Bank in Frankfurt (2014) joins twin office towers to a renovated 1920s market hall. Coop Himmelb(l)au's projects are studied for dynamic, fragmented forms and long-span structures.
Groninger Museum1994 · Groningen
Gasometer B, Vienna2001 · Vienna
European Central Bank2014 · Frankfurt
Ufa-Kristallpalast1998 · Dresden
BMW Welt2007 · Munich
Busan Cinema Center2011 · Busan
Musée des Confluences2014 · Lyon