Asymptote Architecture
Firm Profile
Asymptote Architecture, founded by Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture, is a New York City-based international architecture firm renowned for its intelligent, innovative, and visionary projects. The firm's portfolio includes building designs, masterplanning, art and technology installations, virtual and augmented reality environments, and interior and product design.
Asymptote employs digital tools and contemporary theory, alongside advancements in design and engineering, to provide a powerful perspective for innovative architectural, design, and city planning solutions.
With a focus on environmental sustainability, the firm has completed several significant projects, including the Yas Marina and Hotel in Abu Dhabi, the ARC Multimedia Museum in Daegu, South Korea, The ING Bank HQ in Gent, Belgium, the HydraPier cultural pavilion in Haarlememmer, the Netherlands, and the 166 Perry condominiums in New York City, as well as the Alessi and Carlos Miele flagship stores in New York City. Asymptote's first built project was the Univers Theaters in Aarhus, Denmark, in 1998.Asymptote's ongoing projects include the Missoni Baia Tower in Miami and the new Chain Bridge Sofitel in Budapest, Hungary.
Asymptote employs digital tools and contemporary theory, alongside advancements in design and engineering, to provide a powerful perspective for innovative architectural, design, and city planning solutions.
With a focus on environmental sustainability, the firm has completed several significant projects, including the Yas Marina and Hotel in Abu Dhabi, the ARC Multimedia Museum in Daegu, South Korea, The ING Bank HQ in Gent, Belgium, the HydraPier cultural pavilion in Haarlememmer, the Netherlands, and the 166 Perry condominiums in New York City, as well as the Alessi and Carlos Miele flagship stores in New York City. Asymptote's first built project was the Univers Theaters in Aarhus, Denmark, in 1998.Asymptote's ongoing projects include the Missoni Baia Tower in Miami and the new Chain Bridge Sofitel in Budapest, Hungary.
Asymptote was also responsible for creating two early Metaverse projects, one for the NYSE in 1999 and another for the Virtual Guggenheim Museum in 2000, and is currently involved in a significant Metaverse initiative with the art group Dminti, designing and building a fully experiential virtual museum, as well as ongoing Metaverse projects with IWC Schaffhausen.
Asymptote has received numerous awards, including the AIA NY chapter award, Middle Eastern Architecture Awards, and Le Grand Prix de l'Architecture in Paris, as well as significant awards for achievement within the discipline, such as the Frederic Keisler Prize in recognition of their exceptional contributions to the progress and merging of art and architecture.
The work of Asymptote is part of several private and museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Netherlands Institute of Architecture (NAI), the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Frac Centre in Orléans, France, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York. Asymptote has been the subject of three monographs.
Asymptote has received numerous awards, including the AIA NY chapter award, Middle Eastern Architecture Awards, and Le Grand Prix de l'Architecture in Paris, as well as significant awards for achievement within the discipline, such as the Frederic Keisler Prize in recognition of their exceptional contributions to the progress and merging of art and architecture.
The work of Asymptote is part of several private and museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Netherlands Institute of Architecture (NAI), the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Frac Centre in Orléans, France, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York. Asymptote has been the subject of three monographs.
Design Philosophy
Asymptote was founded on the notion of collaboration and prides itself on its ability to work in partnership with the client and its organization one the hand and with a strong multi-disciplinary team of talented professionals and experts on the other. Asymptote believes that collaboration is an engine that drives creative solutions and fosters a team-based approach that supports this process and enables the achievement of extraordinary results.
The inspiration for Asymptote's work comes from a gaining an understanding of the Client's needs and goals informed by cultural, technological and social dimensions with both a local and global perspective. We are firmly committed to the belief that architecture can successfully achieve specific client and project goals while creating meaningful experiences to a large and diverse audience.
Asymptote pursues challenging and engaging projects that are often without precedent. Asymptote is not only an innovative architecture firm, but also a design "think tank". With a multi-scale and multi-disciplinary approach we are able to assume a fresh perspective and generate creative solutions by thinking outside the box.
Asymptote is consistently seeking cutting-edge materials, techniques and technologies for its projects as well as innovative approaches to issues concerning sustainability, the environment and the integration of technology with architecture. The firm's ability to venture into new territories is evident in its designs for projects from around the globe where it is leading the way in 21st century approaches to building optimization and construction.
Asymptote's design intent is to employ best practices and to approach environmental quality and sustainability from the ground up rather than as a checklist. In collaboration with our clients and expert consultants we carefully evaluate the unique attributes of each project to make informed choices to optimize the design by integrating the most suitable sustainable design strategies.
In a rapidly changing world, Asymptote believes in using knowledge acquired both empirically through experience and observation as well as through research and ongoing professional development. We believe that the of combination curiosity, critical thinking and creativity spawns the kind of inspiring architecture and urbanism that brings new experiences and meaning to life today and that will propel us into the future
Lise Anne Couture
Co-Founder
Lise Anne Couture as managing partner and principal at Asymptote is involved in all aspects of design oversight: working directly with all our clients and internal project teams as well as specialist consultants ensuring creative design vision through all phases. Lise Anne has held numerous prestigious academic appointments including the Bishop Chair and Saarinen Chair at Yale University, the Muschenheim Fellowship at the University of Michigan, the Kenzo Tange Chair for architecture at Harvard's Graduate School of Design and distinguished visiting professorships at Princeton University, the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), the University of Virginia, l'Université de Montréal, the Berlage Institute in Amsterdam, Parsons School of Design and MIT. For over ten years she has been on the faculty of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. In 2009 Lise Anne Couture held the Davenport Chair at Yale University as a Visiting Professor, and in 2010 she was the Baird Visiting Professor at Cornell University's College of Architecture. Lise Anne has been a New York Foundation of the Arts Fellow and is a New York State Registered Architect and a member of the AIA. She has sat on the Board of Directors of the Architectural League of New York, the Advisory Board of the Builder's Association and has served on the federal government's GSA Design Excellence Peer Review Board. She received a Master of Architecture from Yale University in 1986.
Hani Rashid
Co-Founder
As Design Partner, Hani works closely with both clients and Asymptote's experienced senior architects in realizing uniquely creative and intelligent visions and projects. With over twenty years of experience in leading design teams from conceptual sketches to built realizations, Hani has achieved international recognition for his work and Asymptote's global renown. Alongside Hani's professional work he has a distinguished international academic career having held numerous visiting professorships at a number of important universities including the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, the Berlage Institute in Amsterdam and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. As Associate Professor of Architecture at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture Hani co-developed the school's Advanced Digital Design program in 1991 and co founded the Paperless Design Studios in 1996. Hani Rashid has held the Kenzo Tange Chair for Architecture at Harvard and served on the steering committee for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Presently Hani leads the Deep_Futures research department and is the International Dean of the Institute of Architecture at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. In 2000 Hani Rashid co-represented the United States at the 7th Venice Architecture Biennale and in 2004 he was awarded the Chair to the Cátedra Luis Barragán in Monterrey, Mexico, Also in 2004 Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture were awarded the Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts. Hani received a Master of Architecture degree from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in 1985.