REGISTER - HANS KOLLHOFF

In this episode we are joined by Hans Kollhoff, who we invited to Kingston to do a workshop with unit 6 of our M.Arch, and to give a register lecture. Prof Kollhoff teaches in the ETH, and practices from Berlin in partnership with Helga Timmermann.

Kollhoffs life work might be described as a quest for meaning and language in contemporary archtiecture. Writing of the Piraeus building in 1995 he said “Un­der the eco­nom­ic pres­sure to cre­ate some­thing op­ti­mal in ev­ery re­spect, ev­ery­ building turns out to be noth­ing but an unin­spired shoe­box which the architect then dec­o­rates as they think best. To­day's build­ing pro­grammes de­fy for­mal analo­gies so that, if they doesn't want to mar­ket themselves as a win­dow- dress­er, the ar­chi­tect is forced to fer­ret around and find ves­tiges of for­mal in­ten­si­ty in even the most ba­nal build­ing pro­grammes and pro­jects”
This search has taken him through an exploration of different ways this might be found. His early works seek this in the harnessing of the contingencies of regulations and site, while more recent projects embrace Chicago School or Classical forms depending on the typology.

http://www.kollhoff.de/en/index.html

Credits:
Register is brought to you by the Department of Architecture & Landscape at Kingston University.
fada.kingston.ac.uk/al/

Head of Department: Eleanor Suess
Register Editor: Timothy Smith
Interviewer: Timothy Smith & Jonathan Taylor
Audio: Justin Howard