23.10.2024

Competition overview December 2019

Building design

the district is perfectly integrated into its surroundings. The open space forms the connecting element in the district

Interested in the latest competition results in landscape architecture, but hardly have time to look at them properly? In the G+L competition overview, Heike Vossen provides monthly updates on the most exciting competition results. EUROPAN 15 “Productive Cities 2”, Selb site, prize for “Shards bring happiness” EUROPAN, Europe’s largest ideas competition for young planners under 40, was held for the second time under the […]

EUROPAN, Europe’s largest ideas competition for young planners under the age of 40, was held for the second time under the motto “Productive Cities” and continued to focus on how our cities can develop in a way that conserves resources and is fair. 901 designs, the winners of which have a chance of being realized, provided ideas for synergies and joint approaches to solutions. A total of 23 projects were submitted for the German competition locations of Selb and the merger of four towns in the Bergisches Land region, known as the “Bergische Kooperation”. In Selb in Upper Franconia, the task was to redesign the entrance to the town around the railroad station to tie in with the town’s long tradition of porcelain production. Architect Simon Gehrmann and architecture students Roderich Eßmann, Margarita Vollmer and Robin Thomä see the station area as a productive heart in their winning design “Shards bring happiness”. Their conceptual approach of restoring the area’s functions of meeting, production and residence enables new players and alliances without losing the identity of the location.

EUROPAN 15 “Productive Cities 2”, Bergische Kooperation site, prizes for “Bergisch plugin” and “the productive region”

Two designs won for the Bergisch Cooperation location of the city triangle of Hilden, Ratingen, Solingen and Wülfrath, which cooperatively sought strategies for their urban transformation. “Bergisch plugin” by urban planner Nikolai Werner, architects Vassilissa Airaudo, Daniel Branchereau and architecture student Moritz Scharwächter developed planning principles that can be transferred to the respective cities despite differences in size and type. These nine principles are suitable for further developing existing buildings, but also for integrating new ones.
Urban planner Marc Rieser also impressed the jury with his comprehensive planning strategy: “The productive region” focuses on regional and community themes based on overarching guiding principles. However, the toolbox developed for space, use, ecology and mobility makes it possible to respond individually to the local qualities and potential of the various locations.
The award ceremony and exhibition of the EURPOAN 15 prizewinners will take place on December 13 in Berlin, in the “Glaskiste” project space, ExRotaprint Berlin.

“The Best 2019”; Swiss projects awarded by the magazine “Hochparterre”

Every December, the Swiss architecture magazine Hochparterre awards “The Best” of the year in architecture, design and landscape with the Hare Trophy in gold, silver and bronze. In the landscape architecture category, Ganz Landscape Architects won the top gold award for their exterior design of the Krämeracker school building in Uster. Their design is an unconventional answer to the question of what a child-friendly school environment should look like. In a small space, the landscape architects manage to combine many themes and create inspiring contrasts. Materials and planting take on the main role in the design, which, despite its diversity, comes together to form a coherent whole.
Hochparterre has been awarding the Hare Trophy for projects in Switzerland since 1993. The Senn Prize for young architecture, known as “the rabbit”, was recently added. The Zurich Museum of Design is presenting an exhibition of all the awards up to and including January 5, 2020.

LandscapeArchitecturePrize for Students 2019 (LAP), Austrian Society for Landscape Architecture (ÖGLA)

“The Gap” was the theme of this year’s Austrian Young Talent Award, which aims to encourage students and young graduates to rethink and redesign open spaces. LAP 2019 was looking for planning proposals and visions for a freely selectable location that would temporarily or permanently place the previously unused space of small or large interstices in a new context. The students were asked to work out the opportunities offered by the free space and develop it as a place in its own right.
1st place goes to students from BOKU and TU Vienna: Clara Angelika Kessler, Sophie Schaffer and Deborah Sailer. Second place went to Konstantin Heidler from BOKU Vienna. The jury also awarded two 3rd places – to Katharina Streller and Maria Meyer-Giesow from BOKU, and to Milan von Möller from TU Berlin.

Future Project of the Year Award, Masterplan Oberbillwerder, Hamburg, ADEPT and Karres en Brands

The World Architecture Festival in Amsterdam named Hamburg’s Oberbillwerder master plan the future project of the year 2019 in the master plan category. The recognition for the neighborhood of tomorrow is already the second award for the 100-hectare site planned as the 105th district, on which around 7,000 residential units and 5,000 jobs are to be created. In May, the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) pre-certified the project with the highest award in platinum. IBA Hamburg GmbH is developing the new district on the basis of the winning design by the Danish-Dutch planning team ADEPT with Karres en Brands. As energy self-sufficient as possible, the new district also relies on a new traffic structure: pedestrians and cyclists have priority, while eleven mobility hubs form additional infrastructure focal points. As a new element, they combine district garages and district centers with retail, culture and services. Green and open spaces cover around 28 hectares of the district, including a large activity park.

28.11.2024

Living stonemason’s workshop at the Hessentag

Building design

“Life is so colorful” – the motto was the program at the 56th Hessentag in Herborn. In addition to Johnny Depp, who performed with his band “Hollywood Vampires”, and well-known German stars, the stonemasonry trade was also represented.

“Life is so colorful” at the 56th Hessentag in Herborn. In addition to Johnny Depp and his band “Hollywood Vampires”, well-known German stars and the stonemason trade also performed under this motto. From May 20 to 23, 2016, school classes and visitors were able to find out more about the profession of stonemason and stone sculptor and try out their skills on the stone themselves.

11.12.2024

The light of history

Building design

The extensions stand out clearly from the brick and glass architecture of the historic waterworks.

The small town of Mons in Belgium has a turbulent past. In the Mons Memorial Museum by architect Pierre Hebbelinck, the light and dark sides of its history find architectural expression.

Buffer zone, border area, battlefield: Belgium has historically always been a crossroads of European history – and therefore also a stage for its often tragic chapters. This is particularly evident during a visit to the Mons Memorial Museum, which opened in 2015 and is located in the small town of Mons in the southern part of the country.

Pierre Hebbelinck from Liège was commissioned in 2011 to convert a historic industrial building into a museum dedicated to the history of the region. The brick, iron and glass waterworks is a typical witness to the economic boom that the Walloon region experienced during the industrialization process in the 19th century and had to be renovated and extended in line with the preservation order.

The architects opted for two wing extensions, whose exterior façades were painted white to clearly distinguish the new buildings from the existing ones. They clearly divided the functions between the three buildings, with the interior design of the individual rooms corresponding to the exhibition content: the windowless, oppressive rooms of the new buildings focus on the most dramatic chapters of local history – war, deportation, occupation – while the large hall of the old building is dedicated to liberation, democracy and freedom.

The view outside

The hall in the middle of the complex, glazed at the gable ends, serves as a transparent reception and catering area and is crossed by a 15-metre-long walkway. This connects the permanent exhibition in the left wing with the rooms for temporary exhibitions in the right wing.
The architects attached great importance to the lighting concept: in addition to the lighting, which is differentiated according to function, the historic glass fronts of the listed old building were also professionally refurbished to optimize the incidence of sunlight and improve the quality of stay for visitors to the café and bookshop. The large glass windows, which are divided by metal bars, were also renewed.

Open and closed

The closed nature of the extensions forms a contrast to the open and transparent existing building. A strategically placed aisle in the exhibition tour leads to an open space in the basement, whose brick-clad, monotonous red walls can be read as an architectural image of the tragic wartime past of the Mons region. There are also narrow windows that allow light into the interior like crevices in a rock, or provide a view to the outside at certain points: For example, to a war memorial at the crossroads or to important elements of the city’s history in the public space.

Photos: François Brix.