Karl-Heinz Petzinka (born 7 January 1956) is a German architect, and Rector of the

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at the academy include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Blinky Palermo, Ma ...

. He is known for office buildings in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

and Berlin. He converted historic industrial buildings, and was responsible for the section architecture for the Ruhr.2010 project.

Career

Born in Bocholt, Petzinka studied architecture at the

RWTH Aachen RWTH Aachen University (), in German ''Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen'', is a German public research university located in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With more than 47,000 students enrolled in 144 study prog ...

from 1976 and graduated in 1982 with the academic degree of Diplom-Ingenieur. In 1981, he received the

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

state's Förderpreis for young artists in the field of architecture. After his first professional years 1982–1983 as a freelance architect in the office of O. M. Ungers in Cologne, he worked as an assistant to at the RWTH Aachen from 1983 to 1985. From 1986 to 1987, he was a scholarship holder of the Villa Massimo in the architecture category. From 1988, Petzinka taught design at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal, and in 1994 he was appointed professor in the Department of Design and Building Technology at the

Technische Universität Darmstadt The Technische Universität Darmstadt (official English name Technical University of Darmstadt, sometimes also referred to as Darmstadt University of Technology), commonly known as TU Darmstadt, is a research university in the city of Darmsta ...

, where he taught until 2007. During this time, Petzinka also held guest professorships at the

and at RWTH Aachen. At the same time, he founded the Petzinka Pink Architekten studio together with Thomas Pink in 1994, with offices in Düsseldorf and Berlin. The conversion of the in

Bochum Bochum (, ; ; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federa ...

in 2002/03 is one of the projects in which this concept – in this case the addition of technological and reactivating elements to the historical building fabric and building construction – was implemented. At the same time, the Jahrhunderthalle marks the opening of a new field of work in Petzinka's oeuvre with the conversion of historic buildings to a new use. In October 2004, Petzinka took over as chairman of the management of the real estate company with headquarters in the converted in

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; ) is the List of cities in Germany by population, 25th-most populous city of Germany and the 11th-most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher, Emscher River (a tribu ...

. Petzinka left the company in November 2011. In 2007, Petzina was appointed as one of four program directors of the Ruhr.2010 project for the Ruhr being

European Capital of Culture A European Capital of Culture is a city designated by the European Union (EU) for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong pan-European dimension. Being a European Capital of Culture can ...

in 2010. He was responsible for the sector "City of Possibilities" which included architecture, urban development and visual arts. Since 2008, he has been professor of the Baukunst class at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He also acts as an adjudicator at national and international level. Since 2012, he has also held a visiting professorship at the

Austral University of Chile Austral University of Chile ( or UACh) is a Chilean research university based primarily in Valdivia, with satellite campuses in Puerto Montt and Coyhaique. Founded on September 7, 1954, it is one of the eight original Chilean Traditional Universi ...

on the topics of systems, urban planning and planning in non-European countries. On 24 April 2017, Petzinka became the fourth architect to be elected Rector of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He took office on 1 August 2017 for a term of four years.

Work

Petzinka's best-known architectural projects include the Stadttor, a skysrcaper in Düsseldorf that won the MIPIM award, the built in Berlin as the federal headquarter of the

Christian Democratic Union of Germany The Christian Democratic Union of Germany ( , CDU ) is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is the major party of the centre-right in German politics. Friedrich Merz has been federal chairman of the CDU since 31 ...

(CDU), the Representation of the state of

to the Federal Government in Berlin, and the conversion of the Jahrhunderthalle in Bochum into a venue for the

Ruhrtriennale The Ruhrtriennale ( compound of ''Ruhr'' and ''triennale'' "lasting 3 years"), also known as Ruhr Triennale, was founded in 2002 and is a music and arts festival in the Ruhr-area of Germany which runs between mid-August and mid-October, and happen ...

festival. Petzinka has also planned and realised buildings in the commercial, public and administrative sectors as well as private residences. In Gelsenkirchen, he was involved in the construction of the , the Nordstern Video Art Centre Goetz Collection, the planning of the urban development project Stadtquartier am Schloß Horst, and the revitalization of both the workshop building of the Zeche Nordstern and of the Rote Halle in Düsseldorf.

Publications

* Karl-Heinz Petzinka, Bernhard Lenz, Jürgen Volkwein, Florian Lang: ''Technische Gebäudeausstattung''''Technische Gebäudeausstattung''
on WorldCat In Giebeler, Fisch, Krause, Musso, Petzinka, Rudolphi: "Atlas Sanierung. Instandhaltung, Umbau, Ergänzung" Birkhäuser, Basel 2008, . * Karl-Heinz Petzinka, Bernhard Lenz: ''Planen und Bauen in Lebenszyklen'' In Energieatlas – Nachhaltige Architektur; Birkhäuser, Basel 2007, . * * Karl-Heinz Petzinka, Thomas Pink, Johannes Busmann: ''Technologische Architektur''; Birkhäuser, Basel 2004, .

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Petzinka, Karlheinz 20th-century German architects RWTH Aachen University alumni Academic staff of the University of Wuppertal Academic staff of Technische Universität Darmstadt Academic staff of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf 1956 births Living people People from Bocholt, Germany 21st-century German architects