Steven Holl

American architect and theoretician Steven Holl. After graduating from Seattle University and studying in London and Rome, he opened Steven Holl Architects in New York in 1976. In his vast production Holl synthesises “philosophical reasoning and design methodologies” in research which is at the same time “experience and criticism.” In his important essay Anchoring (1989), Holl defines the “dialectic relationships” between buildings and places: clear examples include his New York projects of the eighties, which brought his studio fame and recognition. His Pool House in New York (1981) and in the Museum of Modern Art Apartment (1986) reveal the constructions’ historic and geographic aspects; his showroom for the Pace Collection (1986) clearly reveals the poetics of the De Stjil movement. His offices for D.E. Shaw & Co (1992) and high impact façade for the Storefront for Art and Architecture (1993) are also worthy of note. His projects in Europe include the highly experimental Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum in Helsinki. Holl has designed many important single-family homes (Berkowitz-Odgis House, Stretto House) and housing complexes, including several in Japan: the Void Space in Fukuoka (1991), in which Holl underlines the “void” of Buddhist cosmology, and the 190 Makuhari Bay units in Chiba (1996). His current projects in China have had a great social impact: the Culture and Art Center in Qingdao City and the Ecocity Ecology-Planning Museums in the country’s first ecological city (Tianjin Eco City).