Coop Himmelblau architectural models and drawings for five projects, 1983-1995

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Summary

Creators:

Coop Himmelblau, Prix, Wolf D., 1942-, and Swiczinsky, Helmut, 1944-

Abstract:

This collection consists of architectural models and drawings for five projects designed by the architectural firm Coop Himmelblau from 1983 to 1995. The five projects are: Open House, Malibu, California, 1983-circa 1990; Rooftop Office Remodeling, Vienna, 1983-1989; City Plan for Melun Sénart, France, 1987; Rehak House, Malibu, California, 1990-circa 1995; and Anselm Kiefer Studios, Buchen, Germany, 1990 and Barjac, France, 1992. The firm name is also presented as Coop Himmelb(l)au.

Extent:

138.21 Linear Feet (33 boxes and 1 flatfile folder)

Language:

Collection material is in English with some German.

Preferred citation:

Coop Himmelblau architectural models and drawings for five projects, 1983-1995, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2002.M.2.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2002m2

Background

Scope and content:

This collection comprises architectural models and drawings related to five projects designed by the architectural firm Coop Himmelblau from 1983 to 1995. There are 27 models in the collection, including conceptual and sketch models, site models, and finished models. The drawings consist of 38 computer generated negatives, 41 prints printed directly from the negatives, nine computer generated prints, 16 original drawings, and two color photocopies. Materials for each project include both models and drawings.

The five projects are: Open House, Malibu, California, 1983-circa 1990; Rooftop Office Remodeling, Vienna, 1983-1989; City Plan for Melun Sénart, France, 1987; Rehak House, Malibu, California, 1990-circa 1995; and Anselm Kiefer Studios, Buchen, Germany, 1990 and Barjac, France, 1992.

Open House began as a paradigmatic design in 1983, and was later developed for a New York-based client, to be built on a site in Malibu. The double-skinned structure was conceived as a shell only, with an open floor plan balanced above the ground plane. The project was not realized.

The design for Rooftop Office Remodeling began in 1983, and was further developed and constructed between 1987 and 1989. The project consists of an addition to an existing building on Falkestrasse in Vienna for the law firm Schuppich, Sporn, Winischhofer, Schuppich. The cantilevered structure houses a meeting room and office space.

The firm's City Plan for Melun Sénart is a master plan study that responds to urban sprawl in an area outside Paris.

Rehak House is an unbuilt project sited in Malibu. Material for this project includes 15 models at various stages of the design process.

The firm designed studios for the German artist Anselm Kiefer in two different locations, neither of which were realized.

Biographical / historical:

Coop Himmelblau is a Viennese architectural firm founded in 1968 by Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky, and Michael Holzer. Holzer left the firm in 1971, and Prix and Swiczinsky continued working as partners until Swiczinsky's retirement in the early 2000s. The name Coop Himmelblau translates to Blue Sky Cooperative and reflects the firm's focus on designing structures that reach towards the sky and endeavor to leave the ground. The firm's early work was rooted in theory and performance art, and by the 1980s had developed into experimentations with structure and design processes. Prix and Swiczinsky explored architectural tectonics and the visual expression of tension through structural materials. They pushed their design process by cycling back and forth between sketching and modeling, and by sketching with their eyes closed.

The materials in this collection date from the 1980s to early 1990s as the firm's work was gaining international recognition. The Rooftop Office Remodeling project brought the firm attention, and the firm was included in the 1988 exhibition Deconstructivist Architecture at the New York Museum of Modern Art.

Coop Himmelblau opened a Los Angeles office in the late 1980s, where they would develop such unbuilt projects as Open House and Rehak House.

In the mid 1990s, the firm began to concentrate on built work, and also began to present the firm name as Coop Himmelb(l)au to emphasize the role of construction in their practice.

Bibliography:

Coop Himmelblau website; coop-himmelblau.at

Wim de Wit, Acquisition Approval Form for "Twenty-seven architectural models and 49 drawings by the Viennese firm of Coop Himmelb(l)au", accession no. 2002.M.2, August 21, 2001.

Acquisition information:

Acquired in 2002.

Processing information:

The collection was rehoused upon receipt. In 2017, Sara McGillivray rehoused the drawings and wrote the finding aid.

Arrangement:

This archive is arranged by project in rough chronological order guided by the job numbers assigned to each project by the firm.

Physical location:

Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy.

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Indexed terms

Subjects:: Architecture, Modern -- 20th century
Architectural models
Architectural drawings -- 20th century

Access and use

Restrictions:: Open for use by qualified researchers. Contact the repository for information regarding access to the architectural models.
Terms of access:: Contact Library Reproductions and Permissions.