Lebbeus Woods' disregard for the normal conventions of architecture extends to gravity-what he calls "the insidious enemy of the animate." In his plan for "Aerial Paris," he is less concerned with the constraints of engineering and nature than in evoking a mood; quasi-scientific formulas accompanying the drawing are a subtle critique of the excessive rationalism of contemporary architecture. His plan for the Havana seaside features a hinged terrace running along the waterfront that functions as a promenade during sunny days and a sea wall during stormy ones.

Trained in architecture and engineering, Woods worked first for the office of Eero Saarinen but in 1976 turned exclusively to the realm of architectural theory and experimental projects. Among his more notable works are meditations on Sarajevo (1993-1996), the Berlin Free-Zone (1991), and Solohouse (1988). He is cofounder and scientific director of the Research Institute for Experimental Architecture, Europe, and has additionally taught at a number of institutions, including The Cooper Union, SCI-Arc, Harvard University, and is a professor of architecture at the RIEA School of Architecture in Bern, Switzerland.

Woods has written nine books, including Anarchitecture: Architecture is a Political Act and Radical Reconstruction, and has won many accolades, including the Progressive Architecture Award for Design Research, and the American Institute of Architects Award for Design. His projects include "Cabinet of Civilization," for the exhibition "Seven Hills: Images and Ideas of the 21st Century" and Hermitage, a one-person public space in the Witte Dame of Eindhoven, The Netherlands.