Wolf D. Prix

The recorded working language is German. Employment is recorded with Columbia University, University of California, Los Angeles and University of Applied Arts Vienna. Work by Wolf D. Prix is recorded in the collections of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Distinctions recorded are Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services to the State of Vienna, Austrian Decoration for Science and Art and RIBA Charles Jencks Award.

• Name — Wolf Dieter Prix • Born — 13 December 1942 • Birthplace — Vienna, Reichsgau Wien, Germany • Education — Vienna University of Technology • Partner — Helmut Swiczinsky • Awards — e. g. New York Progressive Architecture Award (three times), Lifetime Achievement Award from The Association for Computer-Aided-Design in Architecture (ACADIA) • Practice — Associated architectural firm[s] • Significant Buildings — BMW Welt in Munich, the Akron Art Museum in Ohio, Musée des Confluences, Lyon, France • Significant Projects — Rooftop Remodeling Falkestrasse in Vienna, Martin Luther Church in Hainburg an der Donau • Significant Design — Vodoel (armchair), 1988, kitchen "Mal-Zeit" (meal -time) for EWE, 1987, Jammer Coat hides the wearer from Google, 2014 • Website — coop-himmelblau.at

Prix was born on 13 December 1942 in Vienna. Wolf Prix's father was an architect; Wolf looked over his father's shoulder in the office. He went to the museum with him and asked: “Why don’t we finish the Tower of Babel?” The visit of the priory La Tourette (designed by Le Corbusier), located near Lyon, France, was his inspiration to study architecture.

Wolf Prix studied at the Vienna University of Technology, the Architectural Association in London and the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles, USA.

In 1968 he founded the Viennese architects' cooperative Himmelb(l)au together with Helmut Swiczinsky and Michael Holzer. Since Holzer (1971) and Swiczinsky (2001) left the office, Prix is the only remaining founding partner of the office. He currently heads it as Design Principal and managing director. In 2006 he was commissioner for the Austrian pavilion at the 10th Venice Architecture Biennale.

• 1988: Deconstructivist Architecture exhibition at Museum of Modern Art MoMA New York • 2012: Coop Himmelb(l)au: 7+, Aedes am Pfefferberg, Berlin

From 1995 to 1997, Wolf Prix was a member of the architecture advisory board at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Science and Research. He is a member of the Austrian Art Senate, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and the advisory board for Building Culture. He is also a member of the Austrian Chamber of Architects, the Santa Clara Chamber of Architects in Cuba, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Italian Chamber of Architects. He is an honorary member of the Association of German Architects BDA.

Wolf Prix has received numerous awards, such as the City of Vienna Prize for Architecture in 1988, the New York Progressive Architecture Award three times from 1989 to 1991 and the Grand Austrian State Prize for Architecture in 1999. In 2001 he received an honorary doctorate from the Universidad de Palermo in Buenos Aires, and in 2002 the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria for Services to the State of Vienna. In 2002 he became an officer of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2004 he received the Annie Spink Award for Excellence in Architectural Education for his commitment to education and teaching, in 2008 the Jencks Award for his special contribution to architecture in theory and practice and the RIBA European Award for BMW World. The Federal Austrian President Heinz Fischer awarded him in May 2009 the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art in recognition of his outstanding creative achievements. In 2011 he was made honorary citizenship of the city of Busan, South Korea. 2013 he received the Hessian Cultural Prize (master builder of dreams). 2021 Prix got the Lifetime Achievement Award from ACADIA.