christian pongratz Profile Page | World Architecture Community

Christian R Pongratz is the Director of the Master of Science Program in Digital Design and Fabrication and Associate Professor in the College of Architecture at Texas Tech University. He taught at The School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin from 2000 to 2002, and was visiting professor at Yeungjin Jr. College, Taegu, as well as at the Busan International Architectural Design Seminar, Busan, Korea. In 2008, he was a Visiting Critic at the Facolta di Architettura di Ferrara, Italy.
Together with Maria Perbellini, he co-founded and is a principal with pONGRATZ pERBELLINI Architects since 2002, a research oriented atelier investigating computation with material based processes. In 2008 the partnership received the segnalazione Compasso d’oro XXI, the most recognized award in industrial design, awarded by ADI in Italy, and entered Compasso d'oro's historical design collection as cultural patrimony of Italy. In 2007 they were awarded the Silver Prize of the Biennal Miami for interior design and an Honorable Mention in Urban & Landscape Design. In 2006 they received the 1st Prize of the international Estetica Design Award. In 2005 they were awarded an Honorable Mention for their project to revitalize Gwangbok Street & PIFF Plaza in Busan, Korea. In 2002, they were selected by the Deutsche Bahn Immobilien Gesellschaft mbH to design a 380 Meter long Lifestyle Center at the new central train station in Berlin.
Christian Pongratz was awarded the John W. Potter Endowment from the University of Texas, Austin in 2000, for his experiments with holograms in architectural design. Since 2003, Christian Pongratz is directing research projects with a pool of leading Italian companies in the stone, marble and conglomerate sector, integrating digital design processes with new modes of industrial fabrication, all funded by State and Industry grants in Venice, Italy.
Their building product designs are shown in international exhibitions and venues in Europe, Asia and the US. Their curatorial work involves among others, a participation in two international annual exhibitions, Abitare il Tempo and Marmomacc, in Verona, Italy.
pONGRATZ pERBELLINI Architects are the authors and designers of the monograph Peter Eisenman, (KA Korean Architects, Seoul, Korea, 1997). They published in the series IT Revolution in Architecture by Bruno Zevi, “Natural born CaaDesigners”, (Birkhaeuser, Basel, 2000). “Cyberstone”, a book investigating digital design and fabrication with natural stone is published in the IT Revolution series directed by Nino Saggio, (Edilstampa, Rome, 2009). A book in progress is “300+”, a manual on recent structural and material innovations in the development of skyscrapers.