Lars Spuybroek

Lars Matthias M. Spuybroek (born September 16, 1959, Rotterdam) is a Dutch architect and theorist who lives and works in Atlanta, where he is professor of architecture.

Lars Spuybroek broke onto the international scene of architecture with his water pavilion on the island of Neeltje Jans (opened in 1997), a building consisting of two halves of which he designed the silvery freshwater part.

This architecture advocates a technological revolution where powerful computing-tools are deployed to replace simple repetition of elements by continuous variation.

"[8] He has a strong belief in the cultural effects of new technologies: "Soon it will be possible to have completely unique parts in a built structure for a price that before would only be possible through huge amounts of repetition - a variable prefab, or as it is called in production terms, mass customization.

[10] Close to Eindhoven, in the small city of Son-en-Breugel, the Son-O-House was opened, an interactive sound sculpture conceived together with composer Edwin van der Heide.

[12][13][14][15] The book proposes a vision of mass production of unique artifacts designed and built algorithmically by “our slaves of steel“ and explores Ruskin’s broad range of concepts in the context of later aesthetic theorists and philosophers such as William James, A. N. Whitehead and Henri Bergson.

With this panoramic study Spuybroek broadened his scope from a purely architectural perspective to what he calls a “nonhumanities,” a philosophy of human-thing interactions based on ancient notions of grace[23] and gift exchange.

In 1989 Lars Spuybroek received the Archiprix, in 1995 the Mart Stam Incentive Prize and in 1997 the Iakov Chernikov Award and the Zeeuwse Architectuurprijs.