John and Magda McHale Fellow
Hannes Stiefel
After his apprenticeship in Zurich, Switzerland, Hannes Stiefel worked as a draftsman and innkeeper. Studies of History of Art and Philosophy at the University of Zurich, Switzerland were followed by the study of Architecture at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria and at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). He earned his master degree in Architecture (Mag.arch.) with distinction from the University of Applied Arts Vienna. As a practicing architect he has worked in the function of a Design and Project Architect on several competitions and studies for Coop Himmelb(l)au. Stiefel worked as a practicing architect in various constellations before co-founding stiefel kramer vienna/zürich in 2003, where he is a principal and partner. stiefel kramer works in the whole field of architecture and develops concepts, research, planning and texts in the context of architecture, urban planning, culture, and cultural management. Honors include the Federal Austrian Award for Experimental Architecture (1995) and the Promoting Award of the City of Vienna in the category of Architecture (2007). Stiefel’s work has been shown in exhibitions in Berlin, Vienna, and Zurich, and served as part of the Austrian contribution at the Biennale di Venezia in 2006. In addition to lecturing and publishing widely, Stiefel has taught as a university lecturer at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, among others, and as visiting professor at the University of Innsbruck, Austria and at the European Program of SCI-Arc in Vico Morcote, Switzerland.
Stiefel’s research at Buffalo focuses on descriptions of an(other) architecture. The venture shall explore the role of seeing/observation and of description as an active and constitutive component of the production of space. An attempt to such architecture is the conception of the Continuous House, a conception (of production and perception) of space that seeks to release architecture from its static boundaries and tries to rehabilitate users and observers as creating co-authors of the built environment.
Previous McHale Fellows
- 2008-09 James Lowder
- 2007-08 Sheila Kennedy
- 2006-07 Raoul Bunschoten
- 2005-06 James Cathcart
- 2004-05 Wolfgang Tschappeller
- 2003-04 Lebbeus Woods
- 2002-03 Neil Spiller
- 2001-02 Mark Wigley
- 2000-01 Michael Webb
Magda Cordell McHale (SUNY Buffalo, 1978-99) and John McHale were among the founders of the Independent Group, the British movement that grew out of a fascination with American mass culture and post-World War II technologies. In celebration of this legacy, the McHale Fellowship is intended to support design work that involves speculation on the impact of new technologies on architecture.
