Christian Rapp

“I have always been, and continue to be fascinated by the metropolitan area and the ongoing dialogue between old and new structures in a changing world.”

As professor of Rational Architecture at Eindhoven University, Christian Rapp aims to realize a complementary equilibrium between theory and practice. The profile of this chair closely matches the focus of his own architectural practice: designing and building an urban context within rapidly changing socioeconomic conditions.

The chair of Rational Architecture (RA) focuses on a cultural tradition of architecture that builds on the idea of ‘type’ as the constant carrier of architectural design. The search for variations of this constant, in order to respond to contemporary building questions and conditions, defines the working field of the chair. The formal basis of architecture, frequently within the spatial context of existing urban constellations, is central at this. By creatively questioning the formal fundament of architecture the chair aims at stimulating architectural research by design. With the establishment of the design based research group Bauhütte applied research finds its place at the chair RA.

Recently, the chair has focussed on strategic collaborations -both regarding education and research- with partner universities such as Polytechnic University Torino, Polytechnic University Milano, TU Dortmund, RWTH Aachen and University of Applied Science Potsdam.

Christian Rapp studied architecture at the Technical University of Berlin and Delft University of Technology. He worked at the offices of Otto Steidle, Rem Koolhaas and Hans Kollhoff, and from 1992 to 1998 he had a joint office with Stefan Höhne. Together with his wife Birgit, he founded architectural agency Rapp + Rapp in 1999. In 1997 he was awarded the Maaskant Prize for young architects. After holding several guest positions at Dutch and German educational institutions, he joined TU/E in 2007 as Professor of Architectural Design and Urban Cultures. In 2014, he became professor of Rational Architecture at TU/e. In 2016, Christian Rapp was appointed City Architect of Antwerp.

• Rapp + Rapp B.V. (director)
• Team Stadsbouwmeester, Stad Antwerpen (city architect)
• Identität der Architektur, Conferences RWTH Aachen (member of programme committee)
• OASE journal for architecture (member and chairman of the bord)