Haus-Rucker-Co

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Haus-Rucker-Co ( House-Mover Company). Viennese architectural and design group founded in 1967 by Laurids (1941– ) and Manfred (1943– ) Ortner, Günter Zamp Kelp (1941– ), and Klaus Pinter (1940– ), with others representing different disciplines. The group opened offices in Düsseldorf (1970) and NYC (1971), so quickly became international. Specializing in ‘disposable architecture’, pneumatic structures, air-mattresses, and life-support systems, its projects (often featuring plastics) have included Balloon for Two (1967), the external shell around the Haus Lange Museum, Krefeld (1971), and the Oasis 5 in Kassel (1972). Among unrealized projects that have received attention are the Pneumacosm pneumatic-cell expansion of NYC (1967) and an artificial cloud with a huge ladder for access (the Big Piano—1972). Cook has identified Haus-Rucker-Co as contributing to Experimental architecture.

Bibliography

J. Burns (1972);
P. Cook (1970);
Design Quarterly, lxxviii/lxxix (1970), 29–30;
Feuerstein (1988);
Haus-Rucker-Co (1984)