Architecture as a form of expression and language

Once I have made a building from thoughts, what does the building still have to do with my thoughts? Architecture is a form of expression and language. Every expression of a language must be considered in itself, and cannot directly be translated into another one.

Balance

In our architecture, we seek balance and harmony between pragmatism and idealism; between practicality and art.

Change

“The only constant is change.”

Christ.Christ.Christ.Christ. Christ. >>

Our architect’s office was founded in 1898 by Karl Christ Sen., and is now managed in the fourth generation by Roger Christ. With each generation, a new office has been created with its own working methods and approaches. However, it is precisely these transition phases, when differing perspectives between new ideas and old values openly encounter one another, providing major enrichment.

1898 – 1943 Karl Christ Senior

1924 – 1980 Karl Christ Junior

1966 – 2014 Gerhard Christ

Since 2006 Roger Christ >>

Since 2010 Julia Christ >>

Context

Architecture always has a constructional-spatial and a societal-cultural context.

Continuity

We have upheld business relationships with numerous clients for many years. Many engineering offices and trades businesses have worked in collaboration with us for many generations. Many of our employees have also worked in our office for decades. Reliability is the basis for continuity, and we view it as a fundamental prerequisite for cooperation.

Detail

Detail is an integral component of entirety. It significantly determines the design and impact of a building, visibly or invisibly. We only find the freedom for the exact implementation of concepts by mastering the details.

Erwin Becker

“I started in 1936 as an apprentice, aged fifteen, for Karl Christ Senior, then I worked for Karl Christ Junior and then for Gerhard Christ until my retirement. Except for a brief period, because I was in the war and held in captivity”!

Interdisciplinarity

The design of our living spaces, the environment created and changed by mankind, is a task for all specialist fields, because issues which affect our habitat are naturally interdisciplinary, aimed as they are at the entirety of complex reality.

We ensure a holistic consideration with the objective of achieving optimally coordinated results through an interdisciplinary planning and construction process with the involvement of various specialists.

Life quality

The basis of our activities is our belief that the quality of our constructed environment has a significant influence on the quality of our lives.

Model

The architectural model is the ideal tool for inspecting spatial qualities. Additionally, as a representative of the building, it helps to explain the building to its future owner.

A comprehensively configured model building workshop with a computer-controlled 3D plotter and traditional model building tools assist us in creating working models which are an integral component of the design process.

Obstacles

We view obstacles as an opportunity. Obstacles represent a vital component for every creative process. In particular through dealing with obstacles, we often find a solution or a distinctive theme for the respective construction task.

Passion

We believe that architecture can only be created through passion.

Perseverance and Endurance

We never give up, and concern ourselves intensively with our tasks until we are absolutely convinced by our own work.

Public spaces

We believe that there is a fundamental prerequisite for social cohesion and a connective link for society to function properly for every freely-accessible public space in a city.

Service Provision

When service provision becomes the content of architecture, then architecture vanishes.

Architecture not only serves; it moves, excites and challenges.

Style

Every project must be individually assessed. A standardised style does not interest us. The form follows the project. Our approach is fundamentally open in terms of results, without preconceived aesthetic or formal solution approaches.

Sustainability

Sustainability as a result of functionality, economy, resource-saving and ecological building methods and spatial quality are an integral component of our work. In the process, however, we also understand sustainability as follows: only a building which endears itself to people as users, inhabitants, visitors and beholders has a chance of permanence.

Taste

Taste is the result of one's own life story.

Team

Architecture is always generated through team work – internally and externally.

In order for a team to function, we believe that individuals require a high degree of freedom regarding actions and decisions to allow them to optimally integrate their knowledge and experience.

Tradition

Our society has forfeited its implicitness, its certainties and its secured traditions. Regardless of how things are today, tomorrow may be completely different. Everything is possible, but not necessary, i.e. a different method is always also possible.

Differing, independent principles of reality with equal rights exist. With regard to architecture, there is no common answer to the question: “How should I build today?”. We have liberated ourselves from the style dictations of past eras. We have a multitude of architectures.

Tribalism

Only once we as a society overcome tribalism and achieve an attitude of tolerance, empathy and altruistic thinking and actions will we achieve the prerequisite for solving pending global problems.

Understanding

We view the comprehension and recognition of a task as well as the precise analysis and scrutinisation of the task assignment as the essential prerequisites for the accomplishment of the respective design task.