Kees Christiaanse
Encyclopedia
Kees Christiaanse is an architect
and urban planner
from the Netherlands
. After working with Rem Koolhaas
, he started two firms, Kees Christiaanse Architects & Planners (KCAP, in Rotterdam
) in 1989 and Architects and Planners (ASTOC, in Cologne
) in 1990, where he was a partner till 2002. Christiaanse has "tackled some of the highest profile urban design schemes in the Netherlands, hosting buildings by" the finest Dutch
and several international architects.
' architecture firm, OMA
, where he was made a partner in 1983 at the age of 30, and worked for the firm until 1989. After OMA, he founded Kees Christiaanse Architects and Planners (KCAP, in Rotterdam
, 1989) and ASTOC Architects and Planners (in Cologne
, 1990); he worked with ASTOC until 2002. He was also artistic director of the Dutch Building Department from 1993 to 1996. From 1996 to 2003 he was a professor of architecture and urban planning at the Technical University of Berlin
, and is now the Chair of Architecture and Urbanism in the Institute for Urban Design at the ETH in Zürich
.
Two monographs on Christiaanse's work have been published, and an exhibition of the work done by his firms, "The City as Loft," was held at De Singel in Antwerp in 2003. He is known for his urban planning work and "has quietly become the power behind the throne of Dutch architecture." He now lives and works in Zurich.
Christiaanse was the curator of the 4th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, and takes on large-scale projects such as the development of neglected areas for the 2012 Summer Olympics
. His latest project is the design of a masterplan for an "engineering campus" (or "science park") in the Bavarian
city of Augsburg
, a 70 acres (283,280.2 m²) project for which the state government (Freistaat Bayern) and the city are contributing 60 million Euros.
, whose 1965 essay "A City Is Not A Tree" had suggested that cities grow like trees at their peril, with branches only connected to each other via the trunk. Alexander's fear, Christiaanse suggests, has become real, according to a keynote speech he delivered at the Holcim Forum 2007 for the Holcim Foundation
, which is the key to his lament that "The city becomes a tree [the urban landscape becomes a forest of trees]." In a presentation given to the Urban Age South America Conference, December 2008, he gave some characteristics of the openness he wants cities to encourage in order to prevent this segmentation. Cities should be (or have):
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
and urban planner
Urban planner
An urban planner or city planner is a professional who works in the field of urban planning/land use planning for the purpose of optimizing the effectiveness of a community's land use and infrastructure. They formulate plans for the development and management of urban and suburban areas, typically...
from the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. After working with Rem Koolhaas
Rem Koolhaas
Remment Lucas Koolhaas is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and "Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design" at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, USA. Koolhaas studied at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam, at the Architectural...
, he started two firms, Kees Christiaanse Architects & Planners (KCAP, in Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
) in 1989 and Architects and Planners (ASTOC, in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
) in 1990, where he was a partner till 2002. Christiaanse has "tackled some of the highest profile urban design schemes in the Netherlands, hosting buildings by" the finest Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
and several international architects.
Life and work
Christiaanse worked with Rem KoolhaasRem Koolhaas
Remment Lucas Koolhaas is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and "Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design" at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, USA. Koolhaas studied at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam, at the Architectural...
' architecture firm, OMA
Office for Metropolitan Architecture
OMA , is a Rotterdam based architecture firm of Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.The firm was founded in 1975 by Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis with Madelon Vriesendorp and Zoe Zenghelis.-History:...
, where he was made a partner in 1983 at the age of 30, and worked for the firm until 1989. After OMA, he founded Kees Christiaanse Architects and Planners (KCAP, in Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
, 1989) and ASTOC Architects and Planners (in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, 1990); he worked with ASTOC until 2002. He was also artistic director of the Dutch Building Department from 1993 to 1996. From 1996 to 2003 he was a professor of architecture and urban planning at the Technical University of Berlin
Technical University of Berlin
The Technische Universität Berlin is a research university located in Berlin, Germany. Translating the name into English is discouraged by the university, however paraphrasing as Berlin Institute of Technology is recommended by the university if necessary .The TU Berlin was founded...
, and is now the Chair of Architecture and Urbanism in the Institute for Urban Design at the ETH in Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
.
Two monographs on Christiaanse's work have been published, and an exhibition of the work done by his firms, "The City as Loft," was held at De Singel in Antwerp in 2003. He is known for his urban planning work and "has quietly become the power behind the throne of Dutch architecture." He now lives and works in Zurich.
Christiaanse was the curator of the 4th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, and takes on large-scale projects such as the development of neglected areas for the 2012 Summer Olympics
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the "London 2012 Olympic Games", are scheduled to take place in London, England, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012...
. His latest project is the design of a masterplan for an "engineering campus" (or "science park") in the Bavarian
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
city of Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
, a 70 acres (283,280.2 m²) project for which the state government (Freistaat Bayern) and the city are contributing 60 million Euros.
Urban planning philosophy
Of particular interest to Christiaanse is the modern city, especially its openness or lack thereof. His designs as well as his public statements propagate the idea of "mixed communities," as he explained in an interview, to counteract the modern move toward gated communities and to increase different kinds of interactions among citizens. Such interactions, and the social control that comes along with it, also increase security, a concern in many European lower-income neighborhoods. The buildings to be built in such new neighborhoods Christiaanse calls "socializing machines." The metaphor Christiaanse often uses, of the city as a tree, is borrowed from architect and urban theorist Christopher AlexanderChristopher Alexander
Christopher Wolfgang Alexander is a registered architect noted for his theories about design, and for more than 200 building projects in California, Japan, Mexico and around the world...
, whose 1965 essay "A City Is Not A Tree" had suggested that cities grow like trees at their peril, with branches only connected to each other via the trunk. Alexander's fear, Christiaanse suggests, has become real, according to a keynote speech he delivered at the Holcim Forum 2007 for the Holcim Foundation
Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction
The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction is a non-profit organization. Its goal is to raise awareness to the role that architecture, engineering, urban planning and construction have in achieving a sustainable built future...
, which is the key to his lament that "The city becomes a tree [the urban landscape becomes a forest of trees]." In a presentation given to the Urban Age South America Conference, December 2008, he gave some characteristics of the openness he wants cities to encourage in order to prevent this segmentation. Cities should be (or have):
- Walkable
- Fine maze public space grid
- Active street front typologies
- Mix use mix size mi[x] social mix age
- No style.
Buildings
- Poseidon, office building, The Hague (1996)
- Kavel 25, housing project, The Hague (1992)
- Snackbar Bram Ladage, snackbar with 18 ft (5.5 m) Pepsi can (1992)
- Housing blocks on Java Island, Amsterdam (1998)
- Hogeschool RotterdamHogeschool Rotterdam- About :The Hogeschool Rotterdam is a University of Applied Sciences located in the city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. It was created in 1988 by a large-scale merger of 19 higher education schools followed by a merger with the Hogeschool voor Economische Studies . It holds class at ten locations...
, building for Arts, Architecture, Education departments (1998) - Kenniscentrum NISA, building for the Netherlands Institute of Ship and Underwater Archeology (1999)
- Het Baken, residential tower, Deventer (2002)
- De Witte Keizer, residential high-rise, Rotterdam (2005)
- The Red AppleThe Red AppleThe Red Apple is a residential tower located at Wijnhaven Island in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The building was topped out in 2008 and was completed in 2009....
, residential high-rise with office buildings, Rotterdam (2009) - Park and ridePark and ridePark and ride facilities are car parks with connections to public transport that allow commuters and other people wishing to travel into city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system , or carpool for the rest of their trip...
facilities for UithofUithofDe Uithof is the campus area of the Utrecht University and the University of Professional Education Utrecht. It is located on the east of Utrecht, near the Galgenwaard Stadium of FC Utrecht. Except for the faculties of Law, Humanities, and University College, which are located in the inner city of...
, Utrecht (2011)
Urban planning
- Masterplan for housing festival, Hague (1987)
- Urban plan for Leidsche Rijn Vinex near Utrecht (1995)
- City plan Zuidhavenkwartier, Rotterdam
- Urban plan for Vinex location Schuytgraaf, ArnhemArnhemArnhem is a city and municipality, situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland and located near the river Nederrijn as well as near the St. Jansbeek, which was the source of the city's development. Arnhem has 146,095 residents as one of the...
(1998) - Urban plan for Lelystad South area of the Flevoland Vinex (1999)
- Winning proposal in 1999 for HafenCityHafenCityHafenCity is a quarter in the District of Hamburg-Mitte in Hamburg, Germany. It is located on the Elbe river island that use to be called Kehrwieder and Wandrahm....
in HamburgHamburg-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, one of the largest European rebuilding projects of the 21st century - "Vexierbild," three buildings in Hamburg Holzhafen, first building finished 2003 ("Vexierbild" translates as "impossible objectImpossible objectAn impossible object is a type of optical illusion consisting of a two-dimensional figure which is instantly and subconsciously interpreted by the visual system as representing a projection of a three-dimensional object although it is not actually possible for such an object to exist An impossible...
"--the buildings suggest the earlier warehouses and by virtue of their open architecture allow an observer to see through to them to the city) - Olympic Legacy Masterplan for the 2012 Summer Olympics2012 Summer OlympicsThe 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the "London 2012 Olympic Games", are scheduled to take place in London, England, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012...
- Stadionpark Rotterdam