Anne Holtrop is an experimental architect working on the fringes of different disciplines. He became famous for the Museum of the "waterline" - a fortification that uses water obstacles - in Fort Vechten near Utrecht. Among his works are also two pavilions in Bahrain - at Expo 2015 in Milan and at the XV Architecture Biennale in Venice (he prepared this exhibition in collaboration with his wife and colleague Nora Al-Sayeh). In addition, since 2016, a museum has been under construction under the Studio Anne Holtrop project in Muharrak, the second largest city in Bahrain, where a branch of Holtrop's bureau operates (another is open in Amsterdam).
In addition to his architectural practice, Holtrop also taught at the Sandberg Institute (a graduate arm of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy of Fine Arts and Design) and was editor of the architecture magazine OASE (2005–2013).
Holtrop describes his creative method as follows: “In my work, I start with forms or material gestures, which often come from outside the realm of architecture, as I am convinced that phenomena can always be re-examined and interpreted, and, in turn, can be viewed as architecture. So a person can see a butterfly or a lake in the ink stains of the Rorschach test. I try to look at material gestures without any limitation and allow them to act as architecture. As a result of this approach, architecture arises when you imagine the next step after those already taken - in an attempt to preserve the freedom of interpretation for the work, in the same way as when it was born."
The award ceremony will take place on November 10, 2016 at the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Moscow, and on Friday November 11, Anne Holtrop will read lecture in the Central House of Architects (registration - by link).
The International Architectural Prize named after the Soviet architect-artist Yakov Chernikhov “Challenge of the Time” is awarded to young architects (age 44) every two years for the best architectural design concept that combines the innovative response of a modern architect and at the same time a professional challenge to the future. The laureate receives an honorary diploma, a silver medal with the seal of the “Research Laboratory of Architectural Forms Ya. G. Chernikhov”and a certificate for the original work of Yakov Chernikhov from the collection of the Yakov Chernikhov Charitable Foundation / ICIF /. The only international award in the field of architecture in Russia was established by ICIF in 2005, among the winners of the past years are Pier Vittorio Aureli and Junya Ishigami.
