Principal and founder Martin Rein-Cano of German landscape architecture firm TOPOTEK 1 presents a number of artful and innovative projects on Tuesday, February 26 at the Daniels Faculty. The award-winning Berlin-based practice is an innovator in the design of open urban spaces - from squares to sports grounds, courtyards and gardens - and has a broad portfolio of German and international projects.

Superkilen urban park in Copenhagen, photo courtesy of BIG

Topotek 1 recently unveiled Superkilen, a kilometer-long park situated in Nørrebro just north of Copenhagen's city centre. Designed in collaboration with firms BIG and artist collective SUPERFLEX, Superkilen animates the ethnically diverse and socially challenged area, imbuing it with a strong identity. The dense site is loaded with market spaces, walking and cycling trails, and playground and street furniture from around the world. By engaging the public through the design process, the park becomes a display of global urban best practice. Superkilen received an American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2013 Institute Honor Award for Regional and Urban Design and was also chosen as one of five finalists by the jury of the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture (also known as the Mies van der Rohe award). 

Superkilen urban park in Copenhagen, photo by Iwan Baan

Other notable projects include the Heerenschürli Sports Facility, one of the largest in Zurich; a new urban park that covers train tracks in Munich; and a Waste-to-Energy plant that doubles as a ski hill in Denmark (designed in collaboration with the firms BIG, realities:united, AKT, and Mand Made Land). 

Heerenschürli sports facility, photo courtesy of World Architecture

Urban park railway cover, photo by Studio Hanns Joosten

Waste-to-Energy plant, image courtesy of Topotek 1

A native of Buenos Aires, Rein-Cano studied art history at Frankfurt University and landscape architecture at the Technical Universities of Hannover and Karlsruhe. He trained in the office of Peter Walker and Martha Schwartz in San Francisco, and has worked with the office of Gabi Kiefer in Berlin. Rein-Cano has taught as a guest professor in both Europe and North America and gives lectures at numerous universities and cultural institutions around the world. 

The lecture is free and open to the public. It takes place on Tuesday, February 26 from 6:30PM until 8PM in Room 103 at 230 College Street. For more information, see John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.