RUR Architecture was founded by principals Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto in 1986. The Harlem-based practice works across scales, from furniture and residential architecture to urban design and infrastructure. Active in theory and writing as well as built projects, the firm “provides a full scope of involvements with the relationship of architecture, structure, and landscape, and approaches each project at the continuation of an ongoing inquiry,” according to its website. Its designers aim to push the limits of architecture, deploying technology in innovative ways to produce novel forms and urban strategies.

Projects include:

• O-14, a 22-story office tower on the Dubai waterfront whose perforated concrete shell functions as the building’s structure while also creating a lace-like effect on its facade.
• China’s Shenzen Bao’an International Airport, a competition entry which took advantage of advances in concrete construction technologies to propose a vaulted ceiling that would appear to change shape as passengers walk to their gates.
• Taipei Pop Music Center, a cultural campus containing indoor and outdoor performance venues and a hall of fame.
• Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Service Center, a cruise ship terminal and port service center featuring a dramatic swooping form and close integration with a public boardwalk.