DATUM:KL 2018 : CHRIS PRECHT - PENDA STUDIO

ARCHITECTURAL TODDLERS by Chris Precht - PENDA Studio (Salzburg, Beijing) CHRIS PRECHT 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 to 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! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The DATUM:KL series of conferences, symposiums and forums is the anchor programme of the Kuala Lumpur Architectural Festival (KLAF2018). As the leading regional architecture and design event, Datum:KL each year features exciting key speakers, leaders and innovators from Asia and globally to Kuala Lumpur to deliver the most current ideas and key messages.