The invisible but razor-sharp line that segregated what were once described as commercial architects, who built generic office blocks and everyday shopping malls, from the much smaller group that designed universities and museums and got talked about by architectural critics, evaporated some time before Ole Scheeren set up his studio in 2010. Culturally ambitious architects could see that, to continue to be relevant in a rapidly changing world, they would need to move beyond the scale of the exquisite. Commercial practices had begun to understand that they needed to offer more than pragmatism if an increasingly sophisticated new generation of clients was going to hire them. But there is still a divide between those architects who are seen primarily as builders, and those who are better known for their ideas.
Scheeren is interested both in ideas and in building, and he might be understood as the embodiment of the new reality of contemporary architectural practice. He is an architect who has immersed himself in the sometimes half-hidden constraints of planning and finance that shape and structure most buildings, along with the specific requirements of his clients. But he also uses his understanding of those constraints to radically transform the expected outcomes, so as to address the wider needs and expectations of the community.
In the 12 years since he set up his own architectural practice, Scheeren has completed a series of striking projects, each of which offers an influential redefinition of a particular building type, from the skyscraper to the hotel. The pixellated form of the King Power Mahanakhon tower in Bangkok, for example, creates a powerful and instantly recognisable landmark – not an easy task in
