ARCHITECT

The architectural agency Rapp+Rapp has its origin in Höhne & Rapp Architekten, established in Berlin in 1992 by Christian Rapp and Stefan Höhne. Christian Rapp had by then already completed the Preaus-building, on the KNSM-island together with the Berlin architect Hans Kolhoff. After a period of time, the German and Dutch offices developed into independent agencies, the Dutch office being run by Christian Rapp. After the marriage of Christian Rapp to Birgit Scheulen, the agency was given its current name. Rapp+Rapp have offices in Rotterdam and Amsterdam and, from 2007, also in Berlin.

The work by Rapp+Rapp cannot to be filed under one style. Nevertheless, characteristics can be distilled from the separate projects: a preference for solid constructions that are firmly connected to the foundation, the use of rugged, artisan materials and the avoidance of fashionable operations whose appearance will soon be out-dated. In addition to this, the agency takes a distinctive approach to design: analytic and systematic, descending through the different levels of scale, from the civic-engineering analysis to the concretisation of the crucial detail.