Silk Leaf Stadium by Coop Himmelb(l)au

Coop Himmelb(l)au | Silk Leaf Stadium

Like a modern acropolis, our concept for the new National Stadium of Japan places the arena on a plinth as a sign in the center of the city. A large plaza is created by the plinth forming the main public entryway. The seating tribunes are conceived as landscape elements of the podium, and are covered by a light, shell-like roof touching the ground at only four points. The shell is topped by a retractable photo-voltaic glass roof element that separates into two visible wing-shaped leaves opening the stadium to the sky.

Silk Leaf Stadium, seating tribunes, by Coop Himmelb(l)au

COOP HIMMELB(L)AU was founded by Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky, and Michael Holzer in Vienna, Austria, in 1968, and is active in architecture, urban planning, design, and art. In 1988, a second studio was opened in Los Angeles, USA. Further project offices are located in Frankfurt, Germany and Paris, France. COOP HIMMELB(L)AU employs currently 150 team members from nineteen nations. Recognized as seminal for the architecture of the future, the works of COOP HIMMELB(L)AU have continually been the subject of international exhibitions. Among the largest and most widely known are the solo retrospectives Construire le Ciel in 1992 at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France, and the exhibition entitled Deconstructivist Architecture held in 1988 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, under the curatorship of Philip Johnson and Mark Wigley.

Silk Leaf Stadium, night concert, by Coop Himmelb(l)au

Wolf D. Prix, born in Vienna in 1942, a co-founder, Design Principal and CEO 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 in Los Angeles. Most formative among his many international teaching positions was his tenure at the University of Applied Arts Vienna: from 1993 to 2011 he was Professor for Architecture (Studio Prix), and stepped down from his position as vice chancellor of the Institute of Architecture in 2012. About his work, he says: “We think of our architecture as part of the 21st century; as art which reflects and gives a mirror image of the variety and vivacity, tension and complexity of our cities.”

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