Steven Holl

Steven Holl is an American architect and artist whose built work draws on contemporary theories of phenomenology. Instead of imposing a style on a site, he argued, the site itself should generate the “architectural idea” applied to it.
Born: December 9, 1947 Bremerton, Washington
Nationality: American
Alma mater: University of Washington (BA)
Architectural Association School of Architecture
Occupation: Architect
Awards:
Alvar Aalto Medal (1998)
BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2008)
AIA Gold Medal (2012)
Praemium Imperiale (2014)
The Daylight and Building Component Award (2016)
Practice: Steven Holl Architects
Buildings:
Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum, Helsinki,
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City,
Linked Hybrid, Beijing, Knut Hamsun Centre, Hamarøy, Norway, Kinder Building, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, Texas, Rubenstein Commons, Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), Princeton, New Jersey
Recognition and awards:
In 1998, Holl was awarded the prestigious Alvar Aalto Medal.
In 2000, Holl was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
In July 2001, Time named Holl America's Best Architect, for "buildings that satisfy the spirit as well as the eye."
In 2007, Steven Holl Architects received the AIA Institute Honour Award and the AIA New York Chapter Architecture Merit Award for Art Building West for the School of Art and Art History (University of Iowa, Iowa City). The Higgins Hall Insertion at Pratt Institute (Brooklyn, New York) and the New Residence at the Swiss Embassy both received the AIA New York Chapter Architecture Honour Award in 2007.
In 2010, Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, (Herning, Denmark) was awarded the RIBA International Award. The Horizontal Skyscraper-Vanke Centre received the 2011 AIA Institute National Honour Award, as well as the AIA NY Honour Award.
In 2011, he was named a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council., and Holl was named the 2012 AIA Gold Medal winner.
In 2014, Holl was awarded the Praemium Imperiale Prize for Architecture.
In 2016, Holl was awarded The Daylight and Building Component Award by the VELUX Foundation.
Other awards and distinctions include:
the best architectural design in New York for The Pace Collection showroom in 1986 from the American Institute of Architects,
the New York American Institute of Architects Medal of Honour (1997),
the French Grande Médaille d’Or (2001),
the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture (2002),
Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (2003),
the Arnold W. Brunner Prize in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and
the 2008 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Arts category.
Style of Holl’s Architecture: "luminist architecture."
Design philosophy:
Holl's philosophy sees architecture as an experience shaped by time, light and materials where various physical and sensory elements have integral relationships, and shape formalistic, spatial solutions.
Steven Holl Architects’ wealth of thought and poetic vision is best explained in 7 key points that define and illustrate the design principles of the studio and project objectives:
Purpose-Driven: Steven Holl Architects is a purpose-driven atelier. We aim for an architecture which aspires to thought, connecting with all the arts and the human condition today.
Social Condensers: We aim to realize buildings as social condensers, inspiring the interaction of people and their communities, rather than simply fulfilling a program.
Natural Light and Proportions: Capturing natural light in inspired spatial sequences remains a core aim of our work as well as proportions realized with our “fine tuners” at 1:1.618.
Materials and Details: With each project we are inspired to create inventive details and experiment with new materials. Natural weathering extends principles of wabi-sabi, or beauty which is ever changing, yielding buildings which look better in time (such as our 25-year-old Void Space/ Hinged Space Housing in Fukuoka, Japan).
Collectiveness: Our collaborative design process engages all in collective creation and building, with inspired working teams for each of our projects.
Ecological Innovation: Ecological innovation is a core aim in all our work. (The 660-well heating and cooling system, the largest residential geothermal system in the world, at our Linked Hybrid, Beijing, is still excellent after 10 years.)
Anchoring: “ Architecture and site should have an experiential connection, a metaphysical link, a poetic link.”
Quotes:
“Architecture is bound to situation. And I feel like the site is a metaphysical link, a poetic link, to what a building can be.”
“I think architecture, to be really intense and fulfilling, doesn't have to be large.”
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