Lisa Kahl and Damian Platten
Prize winner
This year’s award was shared. Both Lisa Kahl‘s and Damian Platten‘s projects persuaded the jury.
In her master thesis “Balneis Salus – a bathhouse in Berlin” Lisa Kahl explores the terms “amusement” and “regeneration” by briefly looking at the past and intensively at the future, in context of the metropolis of Berlin, and compares it against the backdrop of heterotopia. This timeless need of the metropolitan is considered in detailed and skilful developments in urban construction and building style, exemplified by a bathhouse in the city centre. In the context of the legendary Admiral’s Palace in Friedrichstrasse, a practical building approach taking space into account was chosen to account for this need. Therefore, the sophisticated way of settlement of the building is convincing. In addition, the complex cuttings and architectural grace of the interior and exterior design are also compelling. This shows perfectly in every way how traditional bathing culture can still be a special source of amusement relevant today even when included in the structure of a vivid metropolis.
Damian Platten’s thesis “Cloud City” is an experimental architectural construction within which both familiar and new concepts of work and home can be simulated, tested, and optimised. The hard boundaries of space and time disappear in the modern world of work. Digitisation has catalysed this dissolution. The renovated structure of the Postal Logistics Centre at the Basel train station, which extends across the track system, forms the foundation of the project. Basic building blocks like carpet, block, latch, and point derived from classic office construction are overlaid on this foundation, as well as a building infrastructure with facade.
