Hansjörg Göritz Architekturstudio
Hansjörg Göritz Architekturstudio
Hansjörg Göritz was born in 1959 in Hannover, Germany into a family of mastercraftsmen, and grew up in the vernacular context of Lower Saxony. His father introduced him to the building crafts. After his Baccalaureate-Graduation, a fellowcraft mason diploma as guild's best, and evening masterschool he planned to travel as a journeyman mason. An occasion for applied studies intervenes, and while working for several years in the studio of Peter Hübotter, he makes his first tour d'orient to Italy and Greece. Increasingly forced to self educate, he applies at the HDK Berlin School of Arts. Despite successful selection and entrance examinations, he decides to finish his practically-oriented studies.
A commendation and scholarship leads him to London to enroll at the AA School of Architecture in 1984. There his Spanish tutor Javier Castañon makes him familiar with the works of Mexican Luis Barragán - which he realized as regional as well as international, traditional and timelessly modern, all at the same time. After intensive traveling in the UK, to Cistercian monasteries and picturesque gardens, and travels in Scandinavia and France, to he returns to Germany to establish his own studio in Hannover in 1986.
Beginning with renovations and designs for private houses, his own roots and early impressions influence this work. From intensive personal work with his private clients, buildings of identity result. Reconnaissance surveys about the elementary ideas of place, space, proportion, light and material indicate both, a search for silent appropriateness as well as an intention for universal validity of a sublime convention.
Contrary to any stylish shimmering mannerism, his intention is the sensual beauty of pure precision.
On the occassion as an interim-freelancer at the Berlin studio of Axel Schultes he discovers the phenomenon of space as the cardinal theme of timeless building within silence and light in the works of Louis I Kahn. With increasing commissions and scales, this moving notion leads him to develop concise topics and typologies. From the beautiful realism of the built environment of his childhood a transformation derives to a complex simplicity, of which clarity subsists of the sensuality of pure materials.
Exemplifying these attitudes, his approach to executed works is paralleled by his dedication to teaching, diverse exhibitions and lecturing widely in Europe and abroad, at venues such as the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio, the Architecture Forum East Switzerland, and at the New York Institute of Technology.
He has taught architecture as a visiting professor at Hildesheim University of Applied Sciences and Arts in 1995 - 1997, as a tenured professor at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts in 1999 - 2001, and is a professor at the University of Tennessee, College of Architecture and Design in Knoxville, Tennessee, since 2007.
By appointment he is affiliated to Bund Deutscher Architekten BDA (German Association of Architects) since 1993 and Deutscher Werkbund DWB (German Association of Fine Works) since 2000, and is an International Associate with the American Institute of Architects AIA since 2007.
He designed Liechtenstein's State Forum and Parliament buildings, the first in its history, for which he was awarded the international Brick Award 2010, that was previously awarded to Pritzker laureate Peter Zumthor in 2008. His Expo 2000 train station design is materialized with custom made Florentine cobalt blue glass blocks and blue pigmented concrete to match the color of the German state railway corporate design on the Expo-line, connecting the airport to the Expo fairgrounds, in Hannover, Germany. The project became an exhibit at the 6th Biennale di Architettura, Venice, Italy 1996.
Among other notable recognitions he was a nominee for the German Villa Massimo Rome Prize 1988, for the German international architects and architecture critics award, the Erich-Schelling-Award 1998, and was awarded the Deubau-Award for Young German Architects 1994, the BDA Award Lower Saxony 1994, and the German Brick Award 1994.
Placemaking and Spacemaking, contextual and spatial composition, typology, in practice and theory, specifically, the Phenomenon of Space as the cardinal theme of timeless building expressed in a complex simplicity that evokes deep human feeling, are his field.
Among national and international publications about his works and core values, his commentaries and essays add to the professional discourse. His statements on architectural solutions for urban sprawl became widely recognized for presentations on international architecture and art conferences in Cyprus, Hawaii, China, Greece, Spain and Australia.