Barbara Holzer

Founder / Director
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Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Barbara Holzer received her degree in architecture at the ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule) in Zurich. In 1992 she moved to Berlin, where as a freelance architect she supervised projects in Europe and America for various offices. At Studio Daniel Libeskind she was responsible for numerous international projects and completed such buildings as the Felix-Nussbaum-Haus in Osnabrück and the Westside recreation and adventure park in Bern Brünnen.

In 2002 Barbara Holzer returned to Zurich where she founded her own company, d-case, which from the very beginning combined the fields of architecture and scenography. For the Swiss National Exhibition Expo.02 she designed and curated the exhibition Heimatfabrik, which featured installation works by different Swiss artists. Berlin remained an important creative center for her, and she has carried out various projects in the fields of architecture, szenography and design.

Together with Tristan Kobler, Barbara Holzer founded the international architectural office Holzer Kobler Architekturen in 2004. Here she utilizes her extensive international relations and combines diverse disciplines in the creation of a dynamic oeuvre.
Barbara Holzer is also a very active lecturer, serves on numerous competition juries and teaches at several international universities. In the winter semester 2009–2010 she held a guest professorship at ETH Zurich, currently she is a professor at the Peter Behrens School of Art (PBSA) at the University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf and on may 2013 she was appointed to the IBA Thüringen Consulting Comittee.

In 2008 Barbara Holzer and Tristan Kobler were awarded the Grand Prix Design of the Swiss Confederation for their international engagement.

Tristan Kobler

Founder / Director
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Born in Lucerne, Switzerland, Tristan Kobler graduated from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) in 1987 with a degree in architecture. Following his studies, he worked alongside Martin Heller, Alois Martin Müller and Claude Lichtenstein as a scenographer and curator at the Museum of Design Zurich until 1996. In this time he helped organizing more than sixty exhibitions in the fields of graphic art, media, photography and art history.

After working for three years as an independent architect and scenographer in Zurich and Berlin, he initiated the KLINIK art and culture project in 1999 in cooperation with Dorothea Wimmer and Teresa Chen. Following this he founded his own architectural office, Morphing Systems, which also placed special emphasis on scenography.

Together with “extasia”, a collaboration consisting of several international architectural offices, Morphing Systems developed and constructed the “Arteplage” in Yverdon-les-Bains for the Expo.02, Swiss National Exhibition.

In 2004 Tristan Kobler and Barbara Holzer founded Holzer Kobler Architekturen in Zurich.

In 1988 and 1997 Tristan Kobler was an instructor at ETH Zurich’s Faculty of Architecture under professors Vincent Mangeat, Marc Angélil and Daniel Libeskind. Since 1994 he has taught at international universities in Switzerland, France and Germany. From 2009 to 2010 he and Barbara Holzer held a guest professorship at the Faculty of Architecture at ETH Zurich. From 2009 until 2011 he was a professor at ECAL, University of art and design Lausanne. Since 2011 he has a professorship at the Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD).