In memoriam: Lebbeus Woods

The architecture world was saddened yesterday by the news of the death of Lebbeus Woods, esteemed architect, professor and theorist of architecture. He died in his sleep in his apartment in New York at the age of 72.

Lebbeus Woods was born in Lansing, Michigan, USA in 1940. He studied engineering at the Perdue University and architecture at University of Illinois. He worked at several offices, such as Eero Saarinen and Associates and Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo Associates, and then started his own practice. From 1976 he committed himself to theoretical and experimental work. He founded the Research Institute for Experimental Architecture (RIEA). He lectured at many architecture schools, including SCI-ARC, Bartlett in London, Harvard, Columbia and Cornell University, and Cooper Union in New York. In the architectural academic community he had a cult status, and his drawings significantly influenced generations of students.

He is the author of a large number of projects, books and installations, including: „Anarchitecture: Architecture is a Political Act“ (1992.); „Radical reconstruction“ (1997.); „Earthquake!“ (2001.); „The storm and the fall“ (2004.); „Lebbeus Woods: Experimental architecture“ (2004.) i „System Wien“ (2005.). Famous, first of all, for his paper architecture, Woods had no build projects but the influence of his work and theories on the architectural practice was extraordinary. Through expressive and characteristic drawings he explored and analyzed the relationship between architecture and crisis, be it a war, an earthquake or extreme weather. He is best known for his futuristic renderings of reconstruction of crisis-stricken cities such as Sarajevo or Berlin. Analysis and writings about his work were published in many magazines, books and publications. His first and only realized project is the “Light Pavilion” in China, commissioned by Steven Holl, which opened this year.

He was the recipient of an American Institute of Architects Honors Award,  Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design and the Architecture Award of American Academy of Art and Literature. His works are part of public and private collections, including MoMA in New York, Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Cooper-Hewitt Museum of National Design, MOMA in San Francisco, Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh), MAK in Vienna, Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art in Paris and the Getty Institute in Los Angeles.

He is the author of numerous publications and a blog http://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/. In his last blog post entitled “Goodbye (sort of)” he announced his retirement due to his age and health condition, but also planned to published a new book with original writings and theories. We can presume the book is not finished, which is another big loss for the architecture thought.