Ulrich Kirchhoff is the principal director and founder of ICE (Ideas for Contemporary Environments), Associate Professor of Practice at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and Visiting Professor at EPFL, Lausanne. He serves as a member in ACABAS (Advisory Committee on the Appearance of Bridges and Associated Structures), in APRC (Authorised Person Registration Committee) and the FSC (Fire Safety Committee).
With more than twenty years of work experience in Asia, Ulrich was the head of design at OMA Asia/RAD for seven years and participated in several large scale, award winning projects, including the first W- Hotel in Asia and the SKT headquarter in Seoul, which won the HKIA award in 2004.
In 2007 Ulrich’s design achievements received the Perspective award 40 under 40 for the 40 most influential designers in Greater China. In 2010 he exhibited at the Venice Biennale ‘Radical Mix’, a design driven research conducted with his students from the EPF Lausanne, focusing on sustainable high density high rise developments in emergent cities of existent high density low rise context. In 2011 Ulrich was been awarded with the Bloomberg Asia Pacific Property Award for the best mixed-use development in Vietnam: Ocean Heights - New Sustainable Community in Binh Tuan. In 2017 he was awarded BEAM-Plus Platinum, the highest standard in environmental sustainable design, for Upper Central, 48 Caine Road in Hong Kong.
Claudia Wigger
Claudia is a design director of ICE (Ideas for Contemporary Environments) and a Lecturer at Michigan Taubman College.
Claudia has more than 20 years of experience as a licensed architect through collaborations and international consulting, such as Foster and Partners and Sauerbruch Hutton, both in Berlin; RAD in Hong Kong; and Hamilton Anderson Associates in Detroit. Her professional experience bridges small-scale interior projects and large-scale mixed-use buildings and urban master plans. In 2008, Claudia co-founded ICE—ideas for contemporary environments - West and is in charge as a director for Detroit and Berlin.
Claudia is a lecturer at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, which she joined in 2011. She has received the 2021 Donna M. Salzer Award for Teaching Excellence, awarded by the graduating master’s class.
People are our Asset
Since 2007, past and current staff include:
Quoc Ngo Anh, Arthur Bel, Jorge Beneitez Gardeazabal, Matteo Biasiolo, Laure Bouchard, Chi Chuan Yuan, Memphis Chao Chi Man (AP), Vanessa Chik Tsui Man, Tiffany Chow Tung, Bonix Chung, Keith Chung, Celine Clivaz, Agnieszka Drankowska, Isabella Ducoli, Eugenio Fontan, Jorge Gil Suarez, Juliana Kei, Victor Lau, Liu Wei, William Liu, Louise Low Yew Siew, Hugo Ma, Tim Mao Yiqing, Olgierd Nitka, Michael Ng, Ashley Or, Fernando Dario Polimeni, Roberto Requejo Belette, Jeremy Son, Sevan Spiess, Christopher Tan, Shaoying Tan, Lien Thanh Gruetzmacher, Susanne Trumpf, Minh Le Van, Amy Wang, Satoshi Yamada, Yue Zhang