Josef Paul Kleihues (11 June 1933, Rheine – 13 August 2004, Berlin) was a German

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, most notable for his decades long contributions to the "

critical reconstruction Critical Reconstruction is a theory of architecture and urbanism originally developed by the Berlin architect Josef Paul Kleihues. It was first applied in Berlin's International Building Exhibition in the 1980s, and was subsequently used in the r ...

" of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. His design approach has been described as "poetic rationalist".

Early life and education

Stairwell at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago

Born in 1933 in Rheine, he studied architecture at the

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart (german: Universität Stuttgart) is a leading research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany wit ...

(1955–57) and

Berlin Institute of Technology The Technical University of Berlin (official name both in English and german: link=no, Technische Universität Berlin, also known as TU Berlin and Berlin Institute of Technology) is a public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was ...

(1957–59).

Career

After graduation, Kleihues spent one year at the

École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French ''grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Science ...

in Paris. After having worked in the architectural practice of Peter Poelzig in

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

, in 1962 he founded his own practice with Hans Heinrich Moldenschardt.Childs, David: ''Professor Josef Paul Kleihues''
obituary in

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

, 10 September 2004 In 1971 Kleihues designed "Block 270", a residential building in

Berlin-Wedding Wedding (german: der Wedding; ) is a locality in the borough of Mitte, Berlin, Germany and was a separate borough in the north-western inner city until it was fused with Tiergarten and Mitte in Berlin's 2001 administrative reform. At the same ti ...

. This became an important work which re-established the Berlin block plan, a traditional typology, that stood in opposition to contemporary urban planning. As professor at the

Dortmund University of Technology TU Dortmund University (german: Technische Universität Dortmund) is a technical university in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany with over 35,000 students, and over 6,000 staff including 300 professors, offering around 80 Bachelor's and ...

from 1973 and director of the

International Building Exhibition Berlin The International Building Exhibition Berlin (german: link=no, Internationale Bauausstellung Berlin) (IBA Berlin) was an urban renewal project in West Berlin, Germany. Initiated in 1979, it was completed in 1987, matching the 750th anniversary of t ...

(IBA) between 1979-1987, Kleihues propagated the concept of urban "critical reconstruction". He was a visiting professor at Cornell University during fall 1975. From 1986–91 he held the Irwin S. Chanin Distinguished International Professorship at The Cooper Union’s School of Architecture. In 1989 his work was presented in Joseph Paul Kleihues: ''The Museum Projects'', an exhibition and an accompanying catalog (Rizzoli, 1989) at The Cooper Union. Kleihues received international recognition for several museum projects, including for the Sprengel Museum in Hanover (1972) and the Museum of Prehistory in Frankfurt (1980–86). He continued designing museums, including the Civic Gallery and Lütze Museum in Sindelfingen (1987–90), the Berlin Museum of Contemporary Art, an adaptive reuse of the

Hamburger Bahnhof Hamburger Bahnhof is the former terminus of the Berlin–Hamburg Railway in Berlin, Germany, on Invalidenstrasse in the Moabit district opposite the Charité hospital. Today it serves as a contemporary art museum, the , part of the Berlin Nati ...

, a 19th-century railway station, and the

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary ...

. He also chaired the jury that awarded

Daniel Libeskind Daniel Libeskind (born May 12, 1946) is a Polish–American architect, artist, professor and set designer. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect. He is known for the design a ...

the commission to build the

Jewish Museum Berlin The Jewish Museum Berlin (''Jüdisches Museum Berlin'') was opened in 2001 and is the largest Jewish museum in Europe. On of floor space, the museum presents the history of Jews in Germany from the Middle Ages to the present day, with new focuses ...

.Paul Goldberger (February 5, 1995)
Reimagining Berlin
�''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...

''.

References

External links

Kleihues+Kleihues office
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kleihues, Josef Paul 1933 births 2004 deaths People from Rheine People from the Province of Westphalia 20th-century German architects Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany University of Stuttgart alumni Technical University of Berlin alumni