TOPOTEK 1 was first conceived and founded by Martin Rein-Cano in 1996 in Berlin, Germany. Lorenz Dexler joined as Managing Partner in 1999 and in 2014 Francesca Venier joined Topotek 1 as our architectural partner. Currently the staff encompasses 40 employees of whom represent a diverse slice of global nationalities. TOPOTEK 1 departments include administration and public relations, the design and competition team and the construction document and realisation team. We produce in house all materials for each stage of the design process, from conception to construction documentation and conducts all construction oversight. Two thirds of the work of TOPOTEK 1 is generated through national and international design competitions.
Over the past twenty years we have worked in and around the field of landscape architecture travelling within the fringe areas of typologies and scales, jaunting into architecture, urban design and art. In the accumulative time we have worked on some 250+ projects of which 80+ have been realized and today our work spans across more of the globe. Our work exists, has been exhibited in, or is in the process of development in a dozen countries in Europe, in India, China, Canada, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Argentina, Russia, Australia and Korea.
In this time we have been honoured to receive a number of prominent awards and prizes for our efforts. In 2013 TOPOTEK 1 was awarded the IOC/ IAKS Architecture prize of the International Olympic Committee - Gold medal for Superkilen in Copenhagen, Denmark and Bronze medal for the Heerenschürli Sports Complex in Zurich, Switzerland.
In 2015 TOPOTEK 1 was awarded with the 1st Prize of the German Landscape Architecture Award for the Project UNESCO World Heritage Site Cloister Lorsch.