Directors: Christian Rapp, Birgit Rapp, Harrie van der Meijs & Penne Hangelbroek

It is hard to capture the work of Rapp+Rapp in a single style. Even so, there are a number of characteristics that can be distilled from our projects: a predilection for sturdy buildings firmly tied to the underlying ground, the use of robust artisanal materials, an avoidance of fashionable interventions that soon give designs that dated look, and a focus on architectural urbanism, that is, on defining space by modelling the objects that delimit it.

Throughout the past decade Rapp+Rapp has been building up a reputation with high-profile projects both in the Netherlands and abroad. The practice's German origins and the Dutch context in which we operate have consistently yielded striking results. It was to sustain this valuable synergy, this interplay of cultures, that we opened an office in Berlin in September 2007.

In that same month, Christian Rapp was appointed part-time professor of architectural design and urban cultures at Eindhoven University of Technology. This chair accords on all fronts with what has latterly become a priority area in the work of Rapp+Rapp, namely to design and build urban and metropolitan ensembles in what are rapidly changing socioeconomic conditions.





Photography: Kim Zwarts, Hans Wilschut, Rapp+Rapp
Renderings: Rapp+Rapp, A2 studio