contractworld.congress 2011

Star architects Adjaye, Arets, García de Paredes and Prix scheduled to speak at the contractworld.congress

Date: 15-18 January 2011
Venue: Messegelände Hannover, Germany

The “Who’s who” of the international architecture scene meets up every year in Hannover. From 15 to 18 January 2011 Hall 4 at the Hannover Exhibition Grounds will be home to contractworld – Europe’s largest forum for architecture and interior design. Internationally renowned architects will be talking about current developments in the categories Hotels, Offices, Shops and Conversion. The overarching theme of these presentations is “Ethical values”, and each guest speaker will be giving his own view of ethical values in contemporary architecture.

On each of the four days of the Congress, the theme of sustainability will be addressed by international experts in a series of seminars and discussions. They will be covering all aspects of the concept of “Sustainable building”. In addition there will be a special symposium on Monday 17 January 2011, at which architects, engineers, scientists, materials experts and representatives of manufacturing industry will be discussing current projects and recognized building certification systems.

Saturday, 15 January 2011 – Offices / Administration buildings
Ethical workplaces for an unethical client
Now that Google, with its methods of acquiring and utilizing information, has become the bogeyman of the data protection community, the company has come under constant public scrutiny. At the same time, however, Google’s headquarters in Zurich have set a new global standard for office architecture that creates a staff-friendly work environment. The architect responsible, Professor Wolf D. Prix from the architecture firm COOP HimmelB(L)AU, will explain the unusual and creative concept he developed for Google. Professor Prix teaches at the University for Applied Arts in Vienna and has been a visiting professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., and at the University of California.

In his lecture “The Worker”, Wiel Arets (Wiel Arets Architects, Maastricht) will explore the relationship between the needs of employees and the design of offices and workspaces. The work of Wiel Arets Architects has won many prizes and nominations, including the 1994 Mies van der Rohe Award (Emerging Architect), the 2006 Rietveld Prize and most recently the Amsterdam Architecture Prize in 2010.

Sunday,16 January 2011 – Hotels / Spas / Catering facilities
The enlightened hotel guest
Today’s discerning hotel guest is no longer interested only in price and comfort. When people choose a hotel, they want it to reflect their own aesthetic and ethical standards and expectations. They are less and less willing to accept off-the-peg concepts for a mass audience. Instead they expect the hotel interior to mirror their own personal values. Quintus Miller (Miller und Maranta, Basel) and David Adjaye (Adjaye Associates, London) will be examining this shift in values in their presentations.

Impression from contractworld 2010. Photo: Deutsche Messe Hannover

The Basel-based architect Quintus Miller is one of the internationally successful “younger” generation of Swiss architects, who has made his name with projects such as the Volta school building in Basel and the sensitive restoration and extension of the Villa Garbald by Gottfried Semper in Castasegna. David Adyaje teaches at the prestigious Architectural Association in London and runs offices in New York, Berlin and London. He is known amongst other things for the design of the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo.

Monday, 17 January 2011 – Shops / Showrooms / Exhibition Stands
Ethical buying – pleasurable but responsible
The informed consumer knows very well that his consumer behaviour has an influence on the global climate and on working conditions in the producer countries. Customers still want the experience of being enticed to buy something, but they also want to be reassured that they are acting in a completely ethical way. This, it is widely acknowledged, poses a new challenge for retailers and interior designers. The discussion session “Architecture + Dialogue” brings together Mark Jenewein (Love Architecture, Graz) and media artist Dr. Christina Lissmann from Berlin, who will be debating the issues involved.

Tuesday, 18 January 2011 – Conversion of use / Change
Change of use instead of demolition – the Church as architectural client
Changing the use of old buildings is not just a necessity for architects. It also offers opportunities for realizing new ideas within the context of architecture that resonates with historical significance. What role does the Church play as architectural client in the conversion of Protestant churches? These and other questions will be addressed in the lecture given by Ángela García de Paredes (Paredes Pedrosa arquitectos, Madrid). Mrs. García de Paredes teaches at the Technical School of Architecture in Madrid. Her office has won numerous prizes and awards and received the 2007 Spanish Architecture Prize for its work on the Valle Inclán Theatre project.

The contractworld.congress is paralleled by the DOMOTOX HANNOVER 2011, the leading international trade fair for carpets, textile and resilient floor coverings, parquet and laminated coverings.

Further Information:
web: www.contractworld.com