Oppenheim Architecture founder Chad Oppenheim will be WAC's new guest architect in WAC's Live Interview Series. 

Titled Carving Out The Land, WAC's new live talk will focus on the strong relationship between architecture and the land in which the firm's design philosophy is rooted.

Adopting the philosophy of "building with the land, not on the land," the studio is known for its "silent architecture", shaped by the characteristics of the land.

In addition to the design principles of Oppenheim Architecture, Chad Oppenheim will discuss how architecture can still be iconic by building with the land, avoiding the iconicity and flamboyant architecture associated with the notion of verticality.

Chad Oppenheim will be in conversation with WAC's China Country Reporter Flora Jing Lin Ng on Thursday, October 14th on WAC's Instagram account.

Chad Oppenheim. Image courtesy of Oppenheim Architecture.

Oppenheim Architecture was founded in 1999 by Chad Oppenheim pursuing a specific design approach with "a new kind of sensory, site-specific architecture."

Since then, the studio has worked on various kinds of projects across scale, typology, and geography. As the office emphasizes that, every Oppenheim project is designed with a sensitive contextual response guided by the philosophy that design follows life and form follows feeling.

Ayla Golf Academy & Clubhouse was completed in 2019 on the natural desertscape of Aqaba, Jordan. Image © Rory Gardiner

Ayla Golf Academy & Clubhouse, featuring smooth curved lines, in Jordan, Muttenz Water Plant in a protected Swiss forest in Muttenz, Emiliano Hotel on Copacabana Beach, designed with Studio Arthur Casas, an office complex near the Miami river, are among significant projects of Oppenheim Architecture. 

Chad Oppenheim graduated from the Cornell University and a Fellow of the AIA, he has served as lead designer for countless place-making assignments around the world. 

Working closely with clients to realize and amplify their vision, he is backed by strong technical and project teams in Miami and Basel who execute large and complex projects on any continent.

Being a traveler and cultural nomad from his young age, Oppenheim unfolds the power of a place to optimize how people live, play, or work in that particular environment. 

His architecture is described as "monumental and timeless" that enhances lives, as he benefits from a site’s full potential, and protects and celebrates the natural environment. 

He shapes buildings and places to achieve the optimal balance between creativity and pragmatism, function and experience, construction and aesthetics.

Desert Rock will be part of The Red Sea Project (TRSDC) development in Saudi Arabia. Image courtesy of Oppenheim Architecture

Oppenheim has lectured widely and taught at various architecture schools, including Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and, most recently, Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. 

The office has published two books: Spirit of Place in 2019, a monograph about the practice featuring seven award-winning projects, and Lair: Radical Homes and Hideouts of Movie Villains in 2019, the book is an academic investigation into the cultural associations of modernist design with villainy in cinema.

Oppenheim Architecture is currently working on a luxury, mountain resort embedded into rocks in Saudi Arabia's untouched beauty. Named Desert Rock, the project is developed as part of The Red Sea Project (TRSDC) development, which will form a chain of 90 inhabitant islands that are being developed along Saudi Arabia’s west coast. 

WAC's live interviews are organized as 20-30-minute talks to deliver a quick glimpse of the current projects of the architect and the office and provide a fast-paced discussion on the architects' design philosophy.

WAC Instagram Live Interview

Theme: Carving Out The Land

Host: Flora Jing Lin Ng, China Country Reporter of WAC

Date: Thursday, 14 October / 14:00pm (GMT) / 16:00pm (CET) / 10:00am (EDT)

Venue: WAC Instagram