Kees Christiaanse

Founding Partner, KCAP, Netherlands

Kees Christiaanse

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    Kees Christiaanse

    Kees Christiaanse, Founding Partner, KCAP Architects&Planners with offices in Rotterdam, Zurich and Shanghai. Photo courtesy: KCAP Architects&Planners.

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    2nd Holcim Forum 2007 - Shanghai

    "Sustainable architecture" - Kees Christiaanse, Chair Architecture and Urbanism, ETH Zurich (Switzerland)

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    "Sustainable architecture" - Kees Christiaanse, Chair Architecture and Urbanism, ETH Zurich (Switzerland)

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    The jury for region Europe nominated projects to receive a total of USD 220,000 prize money at a meeting on June 23/24, 2005, at the ETH Zurich, Switzerland (L-R): Hansjürg Leibundgut, Brigitte Cuperus*, Mario Cucinella, Kaspar Wenger, Simon Keller*, Hans-Rudolf Schalcher, Marc Angélil, Matthias Sauerbruch, Anne-Françoise Jumeau, Mohsen Mostafavi, Radu Teacá, Cristina Díaz Moreno, Kees Christiaanse, José Morales Sánchez. * - denotes support staff at the regional jury meeting (photographed). Note that support staff were not present during the deliberations and selection of projects for the Awards.

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Kees Christiaanse is Founding Partner of KCAP Architects&Planners, Professor Emeritus of Architecture & Urbanism, ETH Zurich. He was a member of the Holcim Foundation Awards 2005 jury for Europe and keynote speaker at the 2nd Holcim Forum 2007.

Last updated: April 19, 2024 Rotterdam, Netherlands

His keynote “Sustainable architecture” observed that cities are losing their openness. He fears that the typical city is becoming a patchwork of disjointed, sterile, and partially inaccessible sectors, and argued for an understanding of the city as an open system.

Kees Christiaanse is Founding Partner of KCAP, an international design firm, for architecture, landscape design and urban planning with offices in Rotterdam, Zurich and Shanghai. He is an expert in the development of university campuses and in the revitalisation of former industrial, railway and harbour areas and is a supervisor of several international urban developments.

He studied architecture at the Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, graduating together with Art Zaaijer in 1988. His graduation project “Kavel 25” was realized as part of his urban plan for the housing festival in The Hague, a project for which he was awarded the Berlage Flag.

His urban planning works include the winning proposal for HafenCity in Hamburg, one of the largest European rebuilding projects to date (1999); the Olympic Legacy Masterplan for the 2012 London Summer Olympics; and the city plan for Zuidhavenkwartier, Rotterdam.

He was made an Honorary Fellow by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) for 2016, for his contribution to world architecture “that not only represents the spirit of his country, but transcends it, by its references and its international influence”.