Sophie Wilson//Design Context: Design Practice III//Negotiated Briefs//James Maxwell & David Chipperfield.

davidchipperfield.co.uk

As part of my research for the James Maxwell Architecture brief, and a discussion with him about his personal architectural tastes, and, in particular, Architects and Architectural Designers, I'm keen to go on to explore the background, history and works of these cited professionals to look not only at how they may have influenced James' own practice, but to look at their "style" and branding to potentially gain inspiration for myself in terms of branding development.

One of the first Architects we discussed was David Chipperfield, having both been to the Hepworth in Wakefield since it's recent opening, and mutually enjoying the museum building. Visiting Chipperfield's studio website, like a great deal of Architects, it remains clean, minimal and photography- heavy, which is something I hope to explore thoroughly within James' own portfolio for both the mid- year and end of year graduate shows in which his portfolio will be showcased in.

Written below is a brief history of the works and life of David Chipperfield, to potentially give insight and influence upon my work at a later date. All written information is sourced from the independent Wikipedia source page.

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BIO

Sir David Alan Chipperfield CBE, RA, RDI, RIBA (born 18 December 1953) is a British architect, born in London. He has offices in London, Berlin and Milan, and a representative office in Shanghai. Uncompromisingly modernist in outlook, his practice is driven by a consistent philosophical approach, rather than a 'house style'.

CAREER

Chipperfield studied Architecture at Kingston Polytechnic, graduating in 1976 along with the Architectural Association in London. He worked at the practices of Douglas Stephen, Richard Rogers and Norman Foster, and in 1984 established his own practice, David Chipperfield Architects. The practice — which has offices in London, Berlin, Milan and Shanghai — has over 250 staff from 15 countries, working on a variety of projects in Europe, the United States and China.

WORK

Chipperfield first made his reputation in Japan in the 1980s. Among his early projects in England that revealed his rigorous and elemental approach to design included a shop for Issey Miyake on London's Sloane Street in 1983, and a house for the fashion photographer Nick Knight. Later, Chipperfield designed the award-winning River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thamesusing green oak cladding, concrete and glass. Chipperfield was the only British architect to be shortlisted for the commission to design Tate Modern.

Since then, Chipperfield has moved on to become one of the commanding figures in the design of cultural and civic buildings across Europe and in the United States. Chipperfield was the architect for the reconstruction of the destroyed Neues Museum in Berlin, which reopened in October 2009. In addition to the Neues Museum, which Chipperfield began working on in the mid-1990s during an initial competition phase, the architect is also designing the master plan for Berlin's entire Museum Island, a Unesco World Heritage site, made up of five museums. A new entrance building, which will act as an addition to the complex, has also been designed by Chipperfield and is expected to be completed in 2013.

Since the 2000s, he has worked extensively in the United States, where in 2005, he completed the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa, as well as the Central Public Library in Des Moines, Iowa, commissioned in 2001. Current projects include the Anchorage Museum Expansion in Anchorage, Alaska and four lake side villas at Bom Sucesso Design Resort, Portugal.

In 2009, the architect caused controversy for imposing restrictions of photographs in one of its buildings, the Des Moines Public Library.

Chipperfield has taught architecture in Europe and the United States, and has lectured extensively on the work of the practice, including as Professor of Architecture at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Stuttgart from 1995 to 2001. In addition Chipperfield held the Mies van der Rohe Chair at the Escola Tècnica, in Barcelona, Spain, and the Norman R. Foster Professorship of Architectural Design at the Yale School of Architecture. He is a visiting professor at the University of the Arts London (formerly London Institute). He has been on the Board of Trustees of The Architecture Foundation.

Early in his career, Chipperfiled established (in collaboration with Wilfried Wang and Ricky Burdett) an architectural gallery called 9H, named after the hardest kind of pencil, which was created to bring wider attention to what were then obscure European firms, such as Herzog and de Meuron, Álvaro Siza, Rafael Moneo, Luigi Snozzi, and Mario Botta. In 2000, Chipperfield was one of the architects to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. The first British architect in this position, he is to curate the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale.

RECOGNITION

In 1999, David Chipperfield was awarded the Tessenow Gold Medal, what was followed by a comprehensive exhibition of his work together with the work of the Tessenow Stipendiat and Spanish architect Andrés Jaque, held in the Hellerau Festspielhaus. In 2004 he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to architecture, and was made Honorary Member of the Florence Academy of Art and Design in 2003. In 2009 he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. He was knighted in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to architecture in the UK and Germany. He was awarded the Wolf Prize in Arts in 2010 and the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2011.

"Form Matters," an exhibition looking back over Chipperfield's career, was mounted by London's Design Museum in 2009. His Tonale range of ceramics for Alessi received the Compassod’Oro in 2011, and the Piana folding chair has recently been acquired for the permanent collection at MoMA.

SELECTED WORKS