STF7 - 2018: Past Presentations
Architectural Toddlers: between dada and data
Penda
Chris grew up on the countryside of Austria in a small village near Salzburg. Being surrounded by mountains, Chris started as a professional Ski-Jumper until the age of 19 before switching his focus on Architecture. The connection to a natural environment and the importance of a balanced relation between humans and nature remained a core foundation of his work.
Chris' education started in Innsbruck/Austria where he was also teaching classes at the Institute for experimental Architecture. Hochbau under Patrik Schumacher (Zaha Hadid Architects) and Kjetil Thorsen (Snohetta). He graduated with honours from the Technical University of Vienna 2013.
Together with his partner Sun Dayong, Chris founded penda in 2013. Penda has won numerous national and international awards in Architecture and Design, including the “Emerging Firm of the Year” Award from Architzer, ‘Chinese Architects of the year 2015”, the A+Award 2015 for best Residential Project, AD’s Top100, the "Interior Design Award" in 2014 and the "German Tile-Award 2013”. The studio was also ranked as number 37 on dezeen’s Hotlist 400 of the Worlds Best Architects in 2016 and No. 40 in 2017. This makes penda the 3rd highest ranked Chinese Firm and first ranked Austrian Architecture Studio!
Chris’ gives frequently interviews to work worldwide leading Newspapers and TV Channels, like the Financial Time, the Huffington Post, CNN, Bloomberg, and his work is published in design related magazines like Frame Magazine, Mark Magazine, Dezeen, Architizer, Wired or Arch-daily. His office is ranked first at Archipreneurs list of “Architectural Start-ups of 2016” and is named on architizer’s list of “Top 10 Architecture Firms to follow in 2017”.