Kristian Koreman

ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles] was founded in Rotterdam by Elma van Boxel and Kristian Koreman in 2001. Van Boxel and Koreman working closely as a duo. They produce solicited and unsolicited designs and research studies in the field of architecture, urbanism and landscape design.

Realized projects include the landscape design of the Dutch Pavilion for the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, the Central park on the World Expo, the parc Printemps àGrand Bigard Brussels and the exhibition pavilion Spiegelzee at the Dutch coast.

ZUS designed various urban plans, such as plan Almere Dune a coastal district containing 2650  houses and a complete floating city in the Dutch delta.

By means of critical research ZUS produces books and articles such as Laboratory Rotterdam: Decode Space (AIR publishers 2007), Re-public , Towards a New Spatial Politics (NAi Publishers 2007). ZUS also curates research exhibitions like My Public Space for the Netherlands Architecture Institute (2008) and Unbuilt Rotterdam (2010) for the Historical Museum Rotterdam.

Van Boxel and Koreman both teach and lecture at universities and school in the Netherlands and abroad, amoung others the Berlage Institute, TU Delft, Film Academy Amsterdam, Hong Kong University and Ghent University. They are both member of the Rotterdam Board for Spatial Quality.

For their cross-disciplinary approach and the constant reflections on the thin border between private and public space the duo received the prestigious Maaskant Prize for Young Architects 2007.

OFFICE STATEMENT

ZUS  [Zones Urbaines Sensibles] researches  the contemporary urban landscape with productions ranging from political research to specific design of an object.

ZUS works with a belief that every place has the potential to become unique and thrilling. A spatial intervention should therefore always be inspired by the specific qualities of the situation or, in case of large scale projects, with a critical but optimistic attitude.

There can be no spectacle for the sake of the spectacle only, but rather a totality of aesthetics and sensations generated by a specific environment with well defined structures, spaces and materials. This strong need for specificity brings an experimental approach along. To melt frozen political and spatial ideas within the contemporary city radical, even utopian, methods should not be avoided. Especially in cases of public space and spatial production there's a need for strong strategies to generate a change of view.

Their spatial interventions contribute to a higher state of consciousness of the naked reality of our modern, urban culture and environment, although not always by accepting it as the only reality.
PRINCIPALS

Elma van Boxel (Delfgauw, 1975)
1997- 2002: Larenstein  Arnhem, Landscape Architecture, cum laude
1999-2000: University of Greenwich London, School of Arts and Architecture
2004- : Academy of Architecture and Urban Design, Architecture en Urbanism, Rotterdam

Kristian Koreman (Bergen, 1978)
1995- 2000: Larenstein  Arnhem, Landscape Architecture, cum laude
2000- 2001: SKV Rotterdam, Documentary Filming
2002- : Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Philosophy

TEAM

Adam Scales
Clément Périssé
Jouke Sieswerda

Paul van den Berg
Pierre Berthelomeau
Anne-Wil Hop

Jolanda van der Ploeg
Menno Kattenwinkel