CLAUS EN KAAN, Amsterdam / Rotterdam

CLAUS EN KAAN, Amsterdam / Rotterdam

In Dutch architecture, the work of Claus en Kaan occupies a very unique position. Felix Claus (1956) and Kees Kaan (1960) founded their office in 1989. Claus en Kaan Architecten, with offices in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, has meanwhile realised over fifty architectural and urban development projects, and just as many are currently under development. Claus en Kaan's architecture is based on the view that each commission must be considered as a specific case, but at the same time one must look for the general. Behind every architectural tailor-made suit by Claus en Kaan lies a possible uniform. This never leads to standard solutions, but rather to the search for generally applicable rules. In this sense, Claus en Kaan are enthusiastic pragmatists. This enthusiasm is expressed in the optimism with which they dedicate themselves to their subject. The exhibition reflects Claus en Kaan's constant striving for an architecture in which arbitrariness is reduced to a minimum. Especially in an architectural culture so strongly oriented towards the unique surprise, this is extremely remarkable. Aedes presents the work of Claus en Kaan in Germany with a small selection of their work: twelve completed projects and six projects under development, including IJBURG, the planning of this eastern extension of Amsterdam for 40,000 inhabitants, SLUISHUIS, the monumental 'gateway building' to this new district, the recently completed museum building at the Vught concentration camp, the Dutch Embassy in Maputo, Mozambique, and the National Forensic Laboratory in The Hague.