Diller Scofidio + Renfro have just won the 2005 Architecture Design Award (see National Design Award). Founded in 1979 by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, D+S integrates architecture with new technologies, implements new materials and construction processes in its projects and appropriates materials from unlikely sources such as the military, aerospace and medical fields.

Their most famous creation is probably the Blur Building built on the lake of Neuchâtel, in Yverdon-les-Bains for the Swiss National Expo in 2002.

The football-field sized pavilion was made of filtered lake water shot as a fine mist through 13,000 fog nozzles creating an artificial cloud. A built-in weather station controled fog output in response to shifting climatic conditions.

The structure hovered 75’ above the water’s surface on four columns. After a 400’ long walkway, visitors entered a foggy mist. Upstairs at the Angel Bar that pierced through the cloud layer to the open sky, they would be served a sampling of various spring, artesian, mineral, sparkling, and other bottled waters from around the world.

In the initial project, the architects had envisioned the possibility to hand visitors “braincoats”, smart raincoats with embedded computer technology that would respond to each other with glowing lights, acting as a wayfinding aid in the fog and as a means of interacting with the expansive deck.

Their projects have recently selected for the recreation of The Highline elevated train path in NYC, the re-development of Lincoln Center, and the Eyebeam Atelier.

Image gallery of their works and projects.