The architect is at all times also an artist. How otherwise would he be able to tame the three-dimensionality of space and subdue the urges of physics and structural mechanics with the creations of his fantasy? This creativity is however mostly restricted purely to its own field. In this respect, Rob Krier, born in 1938 in Grevenmacher, Luxembourg, is indeed the proverbial exception that proves the rule. Besides his actual profession, which demands his daily attention, Krier has for years also made a vocation of his love of art, one which he nurtures parallel to his work. Fine art could stand in dialogue with architecture and it is Krier’s ambition to have iconographic themes brought into the latter, so that they might speak equally to both the occupants of a building and to bystanders and move them to thoughtful reflection. In the works of Mies van der Rohe it is not rare that one finds naturalistic figures from, for example, Aristide Maillol or Wilhelm Lehmbruck – as an anthropomorphic contrast to the strict geometry of the architecture, notes Rob Krier in the comments on his journal. If one is already aware of the realisation of his masterful architectural accomplishments through projects such as Potsdam-Kirchsteigfeld (1991 to 1997), De Resident in The Hague (1993–2001), Noorderhof in Amsterdam (1994–99), Veste Brandevoort near Helmond (since 1995), Citadel Broekpolder near Beverwijk (2000–04), or the Cité Judiciaire in Luxembourg (1992–2008) – be assured, Krier’s artistic skills are in no way inferior to his architectural work. Quite the contrary: as a sculptor and illustrator, too, Rob Krier brings together extraordinarily musical qualities and incorporates them into his work: his bronze The Jumper was erected in Montpellier in 2004, the Cowering Woman ten years earlier on Berlin’s Friedrichstraße, the four metre-high duo Bosch i Alsina and Papasseit on Moll de la Fusta in Barcelona in 1992.

Rob Krier is not only an architect, but also an influential theorist for architecture and urban planning. Born and raised in Luxembourg, he moved to Vienna after having studied in Munich and worked for Oswald Mathias Ungers and Frei Otto. Today he resides in Berlin and Liguria. After teaching posts in Stuttgart and Lausanne he was a professor of architecture at Vienna Technical University from 1976 to 1998 and, in 1986, held a guest professorship at Yale University in New Haven, Mass.

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