Words Marisa Bartolucci

www.asymptote.net

A sudden spate of major commissions around the world belies Asymptote’s long, circuitous route to ascendancy. A look at some of the milestones on the firm’s path from bytes to buildings.

Arrival in the New World - 1967
The Rashid family emigrates from England to the “new world” of Canada. Upon arrival they visit Montreal’s Expo ’67. “Buckminster Fuller’s 20-story-tall geodesic dome, linked by an elevated monorail with the other pavilions, was the most futuristic skyline ever seen,” Hani Rashid recalls. “That’s where Karim [Rashid’s younger brother] and I thought we were going to live.” Instead, the Rashids move to suburban Toronto. “What we’re both trying to do is make a correction. We really believe in a powerful, poetic, magical future.”

Fateful Encounter - 1983

Rashid meets Couture during registration at Carleton University.

Futurism’s Protégé - 1986
Rashid collaborates with his former Cranbrook professor Daniel Libeskind on “The House Without Chairs” for the 1986 Milan Triennale.

Sculpture’s Disciple - 1986
At the Yale School of Architecture, Frank Gehry, who was still a maverick, and not yet a star, becomes Couture’s mentor.

Renaissance Moment - 1987
In Milan Rashid forms a collaborative with artists, theorists, and technologists. Although short-lived, the experience is formative. Couture joins him, and Asymptote is born. The name is chosen because, says Rashid, it stands “for trajectory and possibility, as opposed to certainty and closure.”

First Break - 1988
Shortly after moving to New York City in 1988, the studio wins an international competition for a gateway for Los Angeles. Its “Steel Cloud” proposal is radical and attention-getting: a four-block-long, bridgelike superstructure in glass and steel spanning the Hollywood Freeway and supporting several movie screens, a glass aquarium and a “forest” of sound synthesizers. It’s never built.

Images Expo ‘67, National Archives of Canada. All other images courtesy of Asymptote.

Pace Set - 1989-90
Three weeks after winning the L.A. gateway competition, Asymptote designs a proposal for the Alexandria Library, setting the studio’s high standards and pace. The entry places third in a field of 1,200 competitors.

Near Misses - 1991-95
The early 1990s are spent working on international competitions, some of which Asymptote wins, but they ultimately fall through. Nevertheless, Rashid believes, “those years were seminal for us. We were able to cut our teeth on various large-scale projects, and really began to understand how politics and economies need to be met head on as well as cutting-edge design and innovation. . . nothing was wasted.”

First Building (Kind of) - 1997

Asymptote wins a competition to design the Univers Theater for the Danish city of Aarhus’s theater festival. A work of striking modernity in a historic town square, it becomes the symbol of the festival.

Theory Becomes Practice - 1998
The New York Stock Exchange commissions Asymptote to design a virtual environment to facilitate the assessment and navigation of its daily deluge of data. Meanwhile, the Bohen Foundation selects the studio to build a virtual Guggenheim Museum. The scheme uncoils the museum’s fabled spiral mass. Amorphic in nature, the digitized museum is dubbed “blob architecture” by critics. Asymptote is not amused.

Workscape Reimagined - 2000
To replace the outmoded office cubicle, Asymptote designs Knoll A3, drawing inspiration from sports and fashion. A fresh, colorful, exceedingly flexible workstation system, it’s assembled from a variety of innovative components.

Images Knoll A3, Ramak Fazel; all other images courtesy of Asymptote.

Floating World - 2002
For another competition in Haarlemmermeer, the Netherlands, Asymptote draws on notions from 17th-century waterworks and follies to design a floating pavilion that is its own water feature, called the Hydra Pier. The water rushing over the pavilion’s mass makes the building appear at once dematerialized and computer-generated. Virtual architecture morphs into reality. Critics go wild.

My Dinner with Alberto - 2003
Architect Greg Lynn invites Rashid to a dinner with Alberto Alessi, who doesn’t show interest in Rashid until he mentions he was a friend of the late post-modern pioneer Aldo Rossi, who designed the celebrated La Conica espresso pot for Alessi. Two years later, Alessi commissions Asymptote to design the first Alessi retail store in the United States. The SoHo store becomes a design destination.

Bonanza - 2006
In Dubai for a conference, Rashid meets a developer who commissions him to design the tallest residential tower in Abu Dhabi. Later, New York developer Ira Drukier walks into Asymptote’s office, announcing it’s time for the firm to build in the city. He commissions a luxury condo at 166 Perry Street, next to a Richard Meier glass tower in the far West Village.

Starchitecture Status - 2007
Blackberry chooses Couture as a spokesperson for its print ad campaign. Asymptote unveils its design for the Penang Global City Center.

Dreams Materialized - 2008
Asymptote has a staff of 60. Its first New York City project, 166 Perry, will be completed this year.

Images Asymptote