Steven Holl and Dimitra Tsachrelia’s spring 2018 studio course has won Architect Magazine’s 2018 Studio Prize. Named ‘Architectonics of Music,’ the course has been offered by Holl since 1986 when he began teaching at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Each studio explores the relationship between music and architecture through lens of a composer’s work.
Holl has taught the course with a number of inspiring architects including Christian Wassmann, Nick Gelpi, and Haiko Cornelissen. Tsachrelia, a student in the 2008 studio, became a professor of Architectonics of Music in 2013.
This year’s studio was centered on the work of French-American composer Edgard Varèse. Varèse was a key figure in early 20th-century avant-garde circles in New York. A composer with close ties to architecture, he wrote a composition for the 1958 Dutch Pavilion designed by Le Corbusier. Today Varèse is credited as a forefather of electronic music.
The studio’s twelve students worked in teams of two to design a music performance and research center celebrating Varèse’s work. Sited on a vacant lot near Varèse’s former home on Sullivan Street in Greenwich Village, the projects had to include an archive, library, performance space, and supporting facilities. Each project was inspired by a Varèse composition. Read more about the students’ projectson Architect Magazine and Architectonics of Music.
Congratulations to the Architectonics of Music students, including SHA employee Lirong Tan!