Krefeld

On the portal gutefrage.net (goodquestions.net), you can find the entry "This is boring. What can I do in Krefeld?" - the one seeking help has not received a constructive answer since July 2011. Are things so bad for the Rhine city located on the left side of the river between Duisburg and Neuss? Okay, by far the most popular first names among Krefelders are Maria and Michael, and "Krefelder" is the name for a mix of beers, which is called "Moorwasser", meaning “swampwater” or "Schmutziges" meaning “dirty” elsewhere. On the other hand, people are also called Maria and Michael in other places and, after all, from the Cologne point of view, Krefeld is not located on the "Schäl Sick", the "wrong side" of the Rhine with the bad reputation. The city marketing chief would like to build on Krefeld's reputation as the "city of velvet and silk", but the flourishing period of the once-established textile industry, is largely history now. However, in 2010, the textile competence network teXellence was founded in the Lower Rhine, and on top of that, Krefeld can score points with its many green areas and high quality of living.
Wolfgang Kienast

Nicolas Beucker

Although Nicolas Beuker lives in Düsseldorf, but since 2005 he works as a professor for public & social design and between 2008 and 2013 as faculty director of the design department of the Hochschule Niederrhein in Krefeld. As a ...

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Mies van der Rohe Award

Excellent Architecture in a Masterpiece of a Building
Mies van der Rohe Award 2015 in Krefeld

Europe's most prestigious architecture award: the "Mies van der Rohe Award" has been awarded for outstanding buildings in the member states of the European Union, every two years since 1987. A panel of independent experts, members of the European Council of Architects and other national architectural associations, put forward projects for the award. The nominations range from single-family houses and cultural and educational buildings to office and commercial facilities, infrastructure-, landscape- and city planning-projects.

The 40 short-listed projects will be presented in an exhibition, which, after the award ceremony in the famous Barcelona Pavilion by Mies van der Rohe, will go on tour. Like a magnifying glass, the exhibition shows current challenges and tendencies in architecture and urban and landscape planning in Europe, every two years.
Among the five finalists in 2015, there was also a German contribution: the Kunstmuseum in Ravensburg by Lederer / Ragnarsdóttir Oei from Stuttgart. A video and audio tour enabled visitors of the exhibition to have an intensive encounter with the projects presented to them by the builders, architects and users, and the respective places were made experienceable to them by means of a soundscape.

Exhibition in original Ludwig Mies van der Rohe building for the first time
The M:AI is presenting the exhibition around the Mies Award for the fifth time now - and this time in an original building by the famous architect: in the office and warehouse building for men's lining fabric of the former United Silk Weavers in Krefeld. Since the 1920s, Krefeld has developed into a centre of textile industry. Mies van der Rohe, who had already worked as an architect for the two founders of Verseidag, Hermann Lange and Josef Esters, was also responsible for the design of the factory buildings. These buildings, located in today's "Mies van der Rohe Business Park" in Krefeld are the only industrial buildings in the world designed by Mies. Therefore, in addition to the award, part of the exhibition is also dedicated to the factory area in Krefeld, which surely belongs to the last unknown works by the great architect.

European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture
Mies van der Rohe Award 2015
Mies van der Rohe Business Park (HE-Gebäude)
Duration: 19 January until 12 February 2017

Theme night: 2.2.2017, 19:00, „Wie verwandelt! Zum Umgang mit historischer Bausubstanz“ („What a transformation! How to handle historical buildings“)

Autor: Marcus Schütte
Fotos: Presse

Girmesgath 5
47803
http://www.mai.nrw.de/mies