Coop Himmelb(l)au co&founder Helmut Swiczinsky dies aged 81

Deconstructivist architect Helmut Swiczinsky, a founding partner Viennese studio Coop Himmelb(l)au, has passed away at the age of 81.

The news was announced in an Instagram post written by fellow Coop Himmelb(l)au co-founder Wolf D Prix, in which he described Swiczinsky as an “outstanding” architect and engineer.

“Helmut Swiczinsky (1944–2025) has left this world,” wrote Prix.

“Swi, as we called him, was not only an outstanding ‘Raumarchitekt’ but also a fantastic ‘Konstrukteur’,” the post continued.

“Whenever a friend, and he was a friend to me – you don’t end long friendships – leaves us forever overnight, our shared deeds and dreams become an unchangeable past. We can no longer dream together.”

Coop Himmelb(l)au co-founder Helmut Swiczinsky has passed away aged 81

Swiczinsky was born in Poznań in Poland on 13 January 1944 and trained to become an architect at both the Vienna University of Technology and London’s Architectural Association.

In 1968, he co-founded Viennese studio Coop Himmelb(l)au alongside Prix and Michael Holzer.

Swiczinsky, who retired in 2006, has been described as “the less publicly visible alter ego of Wolf D Prix”, who still heads up the studio today. Holzer left the office in 1971.

Coop Himmelb(l)au is known for its radical and fragmented architecture style and for being a proponent of deconstructivism – the experimental postmodern movement that emerged in the 1980s.

Among itsCoop Himmelb(l)au’s most notable projects is the Falkestrasse rooftop extension, which was included in the seminal Deconstructivist Architecture exhibition at MoMA in 1988.

The studio’s other key projects include the Funder Factory extension in St. Veit an der Glan, completed in 1988, and the UFA Cinema Center in Dresden completed in 1998.

Also in 1998, the studio built the 60-metre-high SEG Apartment Tower in Vienna.

In his tribute, Prix described Swiczinsky as “more than an architect”. While designing for Coop Himmelb(l)au, he was also a visiting professor at the Architectural Association.

“Many daring CHBL constructions can be traced back to him,” Prix said. “But he was more than just an architect. He could spend hours talking to close friends about philosophy, society, education, and inventions.”

“I think Einstein was rumbling around in his head. But he could only do that with people he liked. He never wanted to teach at universities for long,” he continued.

“He was the quiet but enthusiastic, thoughtful sail setter in the 1960s and 1970s on the pirate ship Himmelb(l)au. He didn’t want to sign on to large tankers.”

Alongside Prix, Swiczinsky was the recipient of numerous awards, including the German Architecture Prize in 1999 and the Great Austrian State Prize in 2000.

He was also given the Decoration of Honour for Services to the State of Vienna in 2002.

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