COMPANY

MAR Architects was founded in 1991 by Michael A. Radtke in Düsseldorf, based on more than 10 years of experience in planning and supervising tropical building and trade fair construction in East Africa.

By 1994 rising demand from public and corporate clients for integrated planning and managing of international trade fair participations, complex show presentations, exhibitions, trade fair buildings and overall exhibition concepts led to the incorporation of MAR Exhibition Management GmbH, to provide complete trade fair, show and event services.

Between 2005 and 2018 MAR Asia Ltd was incorporated in Hong Kong, China, to serve the spacific demands of the many projects in the region.

As of 2015, MAR Architects continues as an entity with associate architect Stephanie Kloft Dipl-Ing. AKNW, based on her more than 10 years in the company, in hands-on familiarity with clients and projects.

MAR is entirely staffed by professionals, mostly architects, with multi-lingual backgrounds, dedicated to

Our Key Competence:  Quality at all levels in international and intercultural networks.

WORLD EXPOSITIONS

Through wide practical experience and the ability to work in international contexts, including involvement in projects at the EXPO 92 Seville as project architect for L+P and EXPO 98 Lisbon as competition architect, MAR was invited to propose a concept for the Africa Pavilion at the EXPO 2000 Hanover in the context of a competition, which MAR won.

Our concept and proposals towards the realisation of the Joint Africa Pavilion at the EXPO 2000 Hanover produced a very intensive communication process among the players: the German government, the Expo association and the participating African countries. Our involvement into creating viable financial, administrative, operative and logistical structures grew rapidly and in step with the physical planning and realisation procedures for this unique project: one continent under one roof, unified in all its diversity. The project was very successful: it had the highest number of visitors at the EXPO 2000 after the German Pavilion. It also stayed within budget.

In consequence, MAR was invited to participate in conceptualising, structuring and planning the Africa Pavilion at the EXPO 2005 Aichi. MAR partnered with a Japanese company, cooperating as advisor, coordinator and producer with the African nations, Japanese government agencies and the Expo association.

And for EXPO 2008 Zaragoza Michael Radtke was appointed as General Coordinator in the rank of Commissioner General for the Africa Pavilion and consultant to the Expo and the participating African countries.

At the EXPO 2010 Shanghai, Michael Radtke was retained as consultant by the Africa Section of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo 2010 and was instrumental in the formulation of the overall planning for the highly successful Joint Africa Pavilion, which was - with over 22 million visitors - the most popular pavilion at any Expo ever. 

For the Shanghai World Expo 2010, MAR also functioned as a service provider together with a Chinese company, responsible for the concept, design, planning and site-supervision of 10 African national pavilions, as well as for the Düsseldorf Pavilion at the EXPO 2010 UBPA Urban Best Practice Area for the City of Düsseldorf, working together with Messe Düsseldorf.

The World Expo involvement continued for the EXPO 2012 Yeosu as consultant to the Angolan Government towards formulation, presentation and adherence to theme and thematic contents of the Angolan Pavilion. 

At the EXPO 2015 Milano Michael Radtke acted as consultant to the Expo organisation for the handling and planning for the 90 nations that were presented in the joint framework of the Theme Pavilions. 

The particular requirements for joint pavilions at world expositions, financially supported by the host nation, present a formidably complex task. For it to be a success both for the Expo and the participant nations, both in preparation and during the Expo, a carefully balanced and responsive communication structure has to be built to bring together the many interests, opportunities and limitations at political, financial and technical levels. We know it can be done.

BACKGROUND  Michael Radtke

Michael A. Radtke was born 1950 in southern Germany. His family moved to Tanzania in 1963, where his father, a medical doctor, managed a joint Tanzanian / German public health scheme around Lake Victoria. He absolved his secondary education in an all-African school In Mwanza / Tanzania, completed 1969 in Nairobi / Kenya.

Gaining admission to the Technical University in Stuttgart / Germany by a special merits examination to study architecture in 1972, he specialized in building construction in the tropics. His diploma thesis in 1978 proposed a viable scheme for the economic utilisation of timber from Kalimantan for the construction industry of Java / Indonesia.

His professional career started with L+P Lippsmeier + Partners, an architectural practice specialising in tropical architecture and exhibition design. Michael A. Radtke moved to Tanzania in 1980 to supervise a major construction project, leading to his proposal, built up and management of an L+P office with 10 local architects in Tanzania. On returning in 1988, he was appointed branch manager of the L+P office in Düsseldorf, where trade fair and exhibition design was the mainstay.

In 1991 he founded his own practice MAR Architects, which over the years expanded into a multilateral concept, design, planning and management instrument, collaborating with clients from the public and private sector for trade fair / exhibition / public facilities projects worldwide. This is reflected in the responsibilities and guidance functions of the specific business entities consequently formed.

More than 300 projects have been handled worldwide in the field of conceptualisation, corporate consulting, architectural and technical planning, presentation, supervision and realisation control, as well as operational guidance, with the MAR teams. 

Michael A. Radtke's function as principal of the group has been expanding in the context of this evidently successful strategy of formulating and realising in-depth and coherent 3D messages for public and private interest stakeholders on international platforms. 

This wide practical know-how “made in Germany“, the 15 years spent in Africa and more than 20 years on worldwide basis, forging a “live“ and constant communication in intercultural contexts, he now focuses on working with stakeholder entities on methods and systems to profile their unique identity aimed at sending value-based and sustainable messages towards the intended recipients.

BACKGROUND  Stephanie Kloft

Stephanie Kloft was born in 1970 in Düsseldorf into a family of enterpreneurs, that have been active in the region for very many years. She completed her high school studies in 1991 and went on to study architecture at Cologne University.

From 1993 to 1996 she worked and trained in a traditional carpentry shop to gain her certificate of competence as a carpenter (Gesellenbrief). She has continued to work in this capacity as a member of the Craft Chamber (Handwerkskammer) until 2015.

At the same time, in 2005 she acquired her qualification as Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Interior Designer at the University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf.

In 2006, her study of architecture was completed at the PBSA Peter Behrens School of Architecture in Düssseldorf with the title of Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Architect.

In the same year she joined MAR Architects, growing into the role of project architect, responsible for design, detail planning, tendering procedures, client contacts and site supervision of international projects for German government agencies, corporate entities and World Expo organisers as well as local shop redesign projects.

Since 2015 she is involved in the management of MAR Architects, with an increasing responsibility for the overall administration and running of the projects.