ELIZABETH DILLER and RICARDO SCOFIDIO - Architects, Designers
[ View speaker video from conference ]

Elizabeth Diller is Professor of Architecture at Princeton University, and Ricardo Scofidio is Professor of Architecture at The Cooper Union.

The New York firm of Diller Scofidio + Renfro is a collaborative, interdisciplinary studio that merges architecture, the visual arts, and the performing arts. The work of DS+R takes the form of architectural projects, temporary and permanent site-specific art works, multi-media theater, electronic media, and print. The studio was founded in 1979 by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio; a third partner, Charles Renfro, joined the firm in 2004.

In 1999, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio received the MacArthur Foundation Award, the first fellowship given in the field of architecture. Other awards received by the studio include; The Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, an Obie for Creative Achievement in Off-Broadway Theater for Jet Lag, The James Beard Foundation Award for Best New Design for the Brasserie, and a Progressive Architecture Design Award for the Blur Building. The studio has also received the MacDermott Award for Creative Achievement from M.I.T, the Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design, the Tiffany Award for Emerging Artists, and fellowships from the Graham Foundation, the Chicago Institute for Architecture and Urbanism, and the N.Y. Foundation for the Arts.

DS+R has just been awarded the commission to design the public spaces of Lincoln Center in New York. They are currently designing the new headquarters for the Institute of Contemporary Art at Fan Pier in Boston and the new Museum of Art & Technology for Eyebeam in New York, both awarded following international competitions and both featured in the most recent Venice Biennale. DS+R has recently completed Facsimile, a permanent media installation for the new Moscone Convention Center expansion in San Francisco and a master plan for a waterfront park on the East River in New York. Recent projects include the Blur Building, a media pavilion for Swiss EXPO 2002, a master plan for Brooklyn Academy of Music Cultural District for BAMLDC in collaboration with Rem Koolhaas, and the Viewing Platform for Ground Zero at the WTC site. A retrospective of their work was on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art from March through May of 2003.

Other completed projects include: the Brasserie restaurant in the Seagram Building, New York; Travelogues, a permanent public art installation at the new JFK International Arrivals Terminal in New York; Master/Slave, an installation at the Fondation Cartier in Paris; Slither, 104 units of social housing in Gifu Japan; Jet Lag, a multi-media work for the stage in collaboration with The Builders Association; EJM1: Man Walking at Ordinary Speed and EJM2: Inertia, two dance collaborations with the Lyon Ballet Opera and Charleroi Danses, all currently touring the U.S, Europe and Asia; Refresh, a web project for the Dia Art Foundation; The American Lawn: Surface of Everyday Life, an exhibition at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal; InterClone Hotel, an installation at the Ataturk Airport for the Istanbul Biennial; and Pageant, a video installation for the Johannesburg Biennial. DS+R has also completed: X,Y, a permanent installation for a pachinko parlor in Kobe, Japan; Jump Cuts, a permanent video marquee for the world’s largest Cineplex theater, San Jose CA; Moving Target, a collaborative dance work with Charleroi/Danses Belgium; Business Class, a collaborative theater work with Dumb Type and Hotel Pro Forma for Copenhagen Cultural Capital; Indigestion, an interactive video installation; and Subtopia, an electronic project for the ICC Gallery in Tokyo.

Installations by DS+R have been commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art, Cartier Foundation, the Museum of Modern Art and the New Museum in NY, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and Gallery Ma in Tokyo, among others. Their work is in the permanent collection of MoMA, SFMoMA, the Fond National d’Art Contemporain, various FRACs in France, the Musee de la Mode in Paris, and many private collections.