Summary

Matthias Frick’s Architecture Must Blaze shows how original thinkers can achieve significant renewal in architecture. The title refers to the manifesto by architect, revolutionary and activist Wolf D. Prix, which turned the architecture world upside down in 1968. Inspired by the ‘happenings’ of the 1960s, he and Helmut Swiczinsky founded the office Coop Himmelb(l)au, causing a storm with buildings that looked like they had exploded. They became the standard bearers of deconstructivism with projects such as the Martin Luther Church in Hainsburg and the Groninger Museum. Wolf D. Prix talks candidly about their revolutionary work of the 1970s and why he eventually took the controversial decision to work for “big money”.