Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York : Audi Urban Future Initiative

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Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York

Charles Renfro, Ricardo Scofidio, Elizabeth Diller | © Abelardo Morrell

The New York practice of Elisabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio and Charles Renfro is considered an intellectual think tank for visions that test the limits of possibility. Elisabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio met at the Cooper Union School of Architecture before they founded their studio in 1979. Along with Charles Renfro, who joined them as a partner in 2004, they taught for several years at various universities. Among the many awards the

architects have received are the Cooper Union Urban Visionary Award (2006) and the Medal of Honor of the American Institute of Architects (2010). Their best known works include the recently opened High Line park in New York’s Meatpacking District, as well as the re-design of the Alice Tully Hall and the expansion of the Juilliard School, both part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York. The architects

also garnered attention with the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and the “Blur Building” for the Swiss Expo 2002. Currently, Diller Scofidio + Renfro are working on the Museum of Image and Sound in Rio de Janeiro and on the expansion of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC, among other projects.

www.dillerscofidio.com

Process		Video Interview		Final ConCept
Diller Scofidio + Renfro Process		Diller Scofidio + Renfro NEW YORK, 20TH JULY 2010 CANCELLATION		Diller Scofidio + Renfro Visiting Ricardo Scofidio \| Video Interview

Future Statements

What is the first thing that comes to your mind with regard to the topic “urban future”?
Nothing dates faster than notions about the future. Each generation lives in its predecessor’s future and it is an inevitable paradox that the next vision of the future is both a product of its time and subject to immediate obsolescence.

Do you have a personal idea of what this future could look like?
The future city will include: a post-natural nature,

regional globalism, gradients of mobility, walkable highways, homes away from home, artificial weather, digi-free zones, micro luxury, and cybernetic computing.

What is your impact as an architect or landscape architect on this topic?
The new city territory will include urban farming, micro-industry, natural and artificial hybrids and will require visionary thinking across disciplines.

Architecture must be both apart from and a part of landscape architecture, urban planning, rural planning, hydrology, horticulture, transportation design, civil engineering and climatology.

Do you think mobility concepts will change the future of the city, or do urban conditions change our concept of mobility?
Both / And