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Raimund Abraham

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Raimund Abraham
Born(1933-07-23)July 23, 1933
Lienz, Tyrol, Austria
DiedMarch 4, 2010(2010-03-04) (aged 76)
Los Angeles, California, United States
Alma materTechnical University, Graz
OccupationArchitect
BuildingsAustrian Cultural Forum, New York
Austrian Cultural Forum New York

Raimund Johann Abraham (July 23, 1933 [1] – March 4, 2010 [2]) was an Austrian architect.[3]

Life

Raimund Johann Abraham, (born 1933, Lienz, Austriadied March 4, 2010, Los Angeles, California),[4] created visionary architectural projects and built works, in Europe and the United States, throughout a 40-year career.[5] Abraham studied at the Technical University of Graz, from 1952-1958, and in 1959, he established a studio in Vienna, where he explored the depths and boundaries of architecture through building, drawing, and montage.[6] In 1964, he moved to the United States, where he first taught at the Rhode Island School of Design,[7] and then for 31-years, as a professor of architecture at the Cooper Union in Manhattan, an adjunct faculty member of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and Visiting Professor of numerous schools, including Yale School of Architecture and Environmental Studies, (Spring ’85),[8] Harvard University Graduate School of Design, the Architectural Association School of Architecture, London,[9] the Southern California Institute of Architecture,[10] the Open Atelier of Design,[11] and the universities of Graz, London, and Strasbourg.

Abraham was a critic of mainstream architecture's preoccupation with style and fashion, its lack of atunement to history, and overly compliant adherence to a rigid definition of modernism.[12] His work has been exhibited internationally. He was the recipient of a Stone Lion (1985) for Progetto Venezia at the 3rd International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, the Grand Prize of Architecture (1995), and the Gold Medal of Honor for Meritorious Service to the Province of Vienna, (2005).[13] His best-known works is the Austrian Cultural Forum Building in New York City.[14]

Abraham died in a car accident in downtown Los Angeles on March 4, 2010.[15]

Architecture

Influenced by the Viennese tradition to align architecture to sculpture, Abraham defined a poetic vision of architecture of conspicuous geometric form on “a collision” course with human needs and desires—striving to “coexist in a state of creative tension.” [16] Abraham’s built work include House Dellacher (1963–67) Oberwart, Burgenland, Austria; Public Housing Complex, (1968–69) Providence, Rhode Island, M.A.Z.E. Experimental Daycare Center (1968-1970), the Rainbow Plaza (1973–77) in Niagara Falls, New York, with co-designer Giuliano Fiorenzoli. He designed the conversion of New York’s Second Avenue Courthouse into a facility for the Anthology Film Archives (1980–89), along with colleagues Kevin Bone and Joseph Levin,[17] and one of twelves prints in the published portfolio Untitled marked the occasion,[18] and also a mixed use building in Friedrichstrasse 32/33, Berlin, Germany (1980–87) for International Building Associates, the Traviatagasse settlement housing complex in Vienna (1987-1991), in collaboration with Carl Pruscha,[19] the renovation of House Bernard (1985), Lienz, Tyrol, Austria, a mixed use Residential/Commercial Building (1990–93) in Graz, Austria, and Hypo House (1993–96), Lienz, Tyrol, Austria.

Among Abraham's best-known work, the Austrian Cultural Forum New York (1993-02),[20] was recognized by architectural historian Kenneth Frampton as “the most significant modern piece of architecture to be realized in Manhattan since the Seagram Building and the Guggenheim Museum of 1959.” [21] Another significant work of Abraham's under construction at the time of his death, the House of Music near Düsseldorf, Germany, was completed in 2013. Abraham transformed a former NATO missile base into a residential/ performance arts complex.[22][23]

Drawing

Abraham is known for creating deeply textured visionary architectural hand-drawings.[24] During the late 1950s and early 1960s he produced enigmatic works in Vienna which placed him among avant-garde architects, such as Hans Hollein, Walter Pichler, and Günther Domenig.In 1958, Raimund Abraham and classmate Friedrich St. Florian, while students in Graz, Austria, placed 3rd in a competition for the Pan Arabian University of Saudi Arabia, and 2nd in an international architectural design competitions for the Congo Cultural Center, Leopoldville (1959).[25] During the 1970s, Abraham focused the typology of the house, and he created masterworks such Earth-Cloud House, project (1970), The House with Curtains Project, Perspective (1972), and The House without Rooms Project, Elevation and plan (1974).[26]

Throughout the 1980s, Abraham’s unbuilt projects, described by critics as architectural poetry on paper [27] crystallized complex architectural principals into captivating spatial mediations.[28] Abraham's projects, such as City Of Twofold Vision, Cannaregio West, Venice, Italy (1978–80) and Les Halles Redevlopment, Paris (1980), and The New Acropolis Museum, Athens (2002) articulates a new contextualized monumentality.[29] Abraham's evocative drawings of imaginative architectural environments, with accompanying titles and text, include Glacier City, from the Linear City Project, Sectional Persopective (1984),[30] Mega Bridges (1965), House Without Rooms (1971–74), Synchronized Space, Black Box, Metropolitan Core, Earth Cloud House, and Radar Cities. [31]

Exhibitions

The work of Raimund Abraham has been exhibited widely at museums and galleries worldwide, including Moderna Museet, the Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm, Sweden; Museo Correr, Venice, Italy; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Pinacotheca, Athens, Greece; National Gallery (Berlin); Venice Biennale; German Architecture Museum, Frankfurt; Krinzinger Gallery, Innsbruck; and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago, Illinois; the Museum of Modern Art and Architectural League of New York.

Solo Exhibitions

Conference Loci last Venice, IUAV, Palazzo Badoer, Manfredo Tafuri.
  • 1983: 1983 Raimund Abraham: works and projects, 1960-1983. Spanish Museum of Contemporary Art, Escuela T.S. de Arquitectura :: de Madrid, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. [34]

References

  1. ^ AEIOU profile on Raimund Abraham 4 March 2010
  2. ^ "Experimental Architect Raimund Abraham Dies in Car Accident" LA Times.com 4 March 2010
  3. ^ William Grimes, "Raimund Abraham, 76, Dies; Architect Known for Visionary Drawings", The New York Times, March 6, 2010, retrieved 12 March 2010
  4. ^ Abraham, Raimund. "Raimund Johann AbrahamAustrian-born American architect". Encyclopedia Britinicanna. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  5. ^ "Tribute to Raimund Abraham". The Austrian Cultural Forum NYC. May 13, 2005.
  6. ^ Weibel, Peter, ed. (May 17, 2005). Beyond Art: A Third Culture: A Comparative Study in Cultures, Art and Science in 20th Century Austria and Hungary (1st ed.). Vienna: Springer Vienna Architecture. ISBN 3211245626.
  7. ^ "Raimund Abraham, former RISD faculty member dies in Los Angeles". RISD Academic Affairs. March 16, 2010.
  8. ^ Whitten, Theodore; Osman, Michael, eds. (September 19, 1999). Retrospecta, 98/99: The Annual Retrospective of the Yale School of Architecture. ISBN 0967402107.
  9. ^ "Raimund Abraham Seven Gates". Architecture Association School of Architecture. January 13, 1977.
  10. ^ "SCI-Arc NEWS: ARCHITECT RAIMUND ABRAHAM (1933-2010) Dies in Car Accident in Los Angeles". Southern California Institute of Architecture. March 4, 2010.
  11. ^ The New School Archives & Special Collections. "Diital Collections: Raimund Abraham". The New School.
  12. ^ Sennott, Stephen, ed. (January 1, 2004). Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Architecture. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. p. 5. ISBN 1579584349.
  13. ^ Beaver, Robin; Slessor, Catherine (eds.). Contemporary Architecture CA1, CA1 Series, Volume 1 of CA: Contemporary Architecture. p. 241.
  14. ^ Iovine, Julie (May 2, 2002). "For Austria: A Tribute And Protest". New York Times.
  15. ^ Grimes, William (March 6, 2010). "Raimund Abraham, Architect With Vision, Dies at 76". The New York Times.
  16. ^ Woods, Lebbeus (April 4, 2010). "Tribute> Raimund Abraham". The Architect's Newspaper.
  17. ^ "About/ History". Anthology Film Archives.
  18. ^ "Untitled: Artist/ Maker Raimund Abraham". Reynolda House. Reynolda House Museum of American Art.
  19. ^ Düriegl, Günter, ed. (April 22, 2010). "Architect Raim Abraham has died in an accident". Rotweissenrot: 40.
  20. ^ Hill, John, ed. (December 5, 2011). New York City, Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture (1 ed.). W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393733262.
  21. ^ "Raimund Abraham (1933 – 2010)". Austrian Information. 63 (Spring 2010).
  22. ^ Quirk, Vanessa (July 23, 2012). "Raimund Abraham's Final Work / Photographer Thomas Mayer". Arch Daily.
  23. ^ Taylor, James (February 7, 2014). "Raimund Abraham's Last Project Realized at Former NATO Missile Base". Arch Daily.
  24. ^ Amelar, Sarah (March 9, 2010). "In Memoriam: Raimund Johann Abraham (1933-2010)". Architectural Record.
  25. ^ Morgan, William (March 1, 2014). "Submission Requirements: Design competitions and the creative economy". AIA Architect.
  26. ^ Riley, Terrance, ed. (2002). The Changing of the Avant-Garde: Visionary Architectural Drawings from the Howard Gilman Collection. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. p. 116.
  27. ^ Miller, Norbert (2011). "Imagination and the calculus of reality. Raimund Abraham [UN]BUILT". Springer.
  28. ^ Sky, Alison; Michelle, Stone, eds. (1976). Unbuilt America: Forgotten Architecture in the United States from Thomas Jefferson to the Space Age. New York: McGraw Hill.
  29. ^ Baraona Pohl, Ethel (September 2, 2011). "Reviews: Raimund Abramah [Un]Built: 15 years after its publication, the second edition". Domus.
  30. ^ McQuaid, Matilda, ed. (2002). Envisioning Architecture: Drawings from The Museum of Modern Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art.
  31. ^ Manaugh, Geoff. "I'm exposing matter to the forces of time..." Canadian Center for Architecture (CCA).
  32. ^ "RAIMUND ABRAHAM: JingYa Ocean Entertainment Center Beijing". Frederieke Taylor Gallery. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= requires |archive-url= (help); Check date values in: |archivedate= (help)
  33. ^ "Raimund Abraham in mostra a Milano". AR. 30 (2): 58. January 2002.
  34. ^ Abraham, Raimund; Campo, B.A, (1983). Raimund Abraham: Obras y proyectos, 1960-1983. Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, Escuela T.S. de Arquitectura de Madrid, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Madrid: Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid, Comisión de Cultura. ISBN 8485572564.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Bibliography

  • Groihofer, Brigitte (Ed.): Raimund Abraham [UN]Built. Springer, 1996

External links

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