Rob Krier, Christoph Kohl: New Urbanism, Architecture, Stadtbaukunst

<body bgcolor="#ffffff"> <p class="MsoBodyText"><span lang="EN-GB">The ROB KRIER + CHRISTOPH KOHL office is one of the most prominent representatives of the tradition of new urban development orientated towards the European city. It can be considered as one of the few European protagonists of NEW URBANISM.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">It has received international acclaim through Rob Krier’s contributions to vibrant STADTBAUKUNST, his theoretical and practical involvement with the developmental reconstruction of destroyed urban structures, and the reintroduction of traditional compositional space in the STÄDTEBAU of the post-war years.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">Rob Krier + Christoph Kohl exercise an urbanism-orientated towards traditional architecture, in that they respect the specific history of a city, reflected in its street pattern and in its facade and construction typology, and aim to reanimate it by drawing on up-to-date resources. By emphasising the spatial context and by harmonising new and existing spatial and building structures, Rob Krier × Christoph Kohl prove themselves to be anti-modernistic, without being anti-innovative.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">Rob Krier + Christoph Kohl are advocates of a city architecture which meets practical needs and, rather than being simply utilitarian, also contributes to the enhancement of the living environment. They readily apply the terms “normal” building and “normal” house, by which they mean the observation of human proportions in architecture, which is also expressed by giving preference to individualised, divided blocks of buildings. The future of the city therefore lies in the social “down-scaling” of architecture, and in reanimating sections of the city which unify different facets of social life.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">This image of the “European city” which has developed and been proved successful over the centuries, lacks a sensational element. The credo of Rob Krier + Christoph Kohl is rather concerned with the diversity of simplicity, and variation without deformation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>For them it is clear that houses which are typologically the same should, when repeated, be stylistically different from each other, so that they take on a sense of individual identity. It must be possible to repeat the typical house countless times with every modification imaginable, without allowing them to become boring.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">The most famous examples of Krier’s work in urban development are the built-on housing blocks on Ritterstrasse (1977-1980), realised as part of the IBA in Berlin, and the city villas in Rauchstrasse (1980), as well as the housing complex in Breitenfurterstrasse in Vienna (1981-87).</span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText"><span lang="EN-GB">The Rob Krier + Christoph Kohl architecture office has been based in Berlin since 1993. The relocation from Vienna was due to their considerable contribution to the realisation and coordination of the urban development project Kirchsteigfeld in Potsdam (1992-97), which was built according to the designs of the office.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">Future plans focus on urban development projects in the whole of Europe. The newest examples of the architectural-urban development style of the Rob Krier + Christoph Kohl office are the Dutch projects DE RESIDENT in Den Haag and BRANDEVOORT at Helmond.</span></p> </body>