Candidates and Winners Student Award

Silvi Kociu

Prize winner Student Award

Silvi Kociu received the main prize of 2,000 euros for her master’s thesis ‘Sand dumping in Hamburg’s Spree harbour’.
In her work, Silvi Kociu shows how the maintenance work in Hamburg’s shipping canals can be used to create a new landscape for animals and plants. She uses the sand dredged from the canals to maintain navigation to create a cohabitative ecosystem consisting of a habitat for animals and a natural leisure pool.
The work skilfully spans a wide cultural arc from the beginnings of land occupation by humans to the withdrawal of humans from strategically selected areas called for by Kociu. The architectural objects she proposes are variations on typical harbour infrastructures such as crane runways and conveyor belts.
The work was supervised by Prof Simon Hartmann and Prof Christian Inderbitzin.

Alexander Rapp

Appreciation Student Award

The master’s thesis ‘Region. Architecture. Identity _ Structural Development through Architectural Intervention’ by Alexander Rapp deals with the well-known phenomenon of structural change in rural regions in a very subtle and pointed manner in its theoretical and practical elaboration. He chooses the small Saxon town of Glashütte in the Ore Mountains as an example. The town’s demonstrable population decline, the vacancy rate and need for refurbishment of its existing buildings and its still existing tradition of watchmaking provided a suitable starting point for reviving the tradition of an old craft tradition in connection with a new watchmaking school and training workshops in addition to social changes by means of architectural interventions. This new anchor point, which is close at hand for the region and creates a sense of identity, offers not only an urban redevelopment of the city centre but also the opportunity to anchor the watchmaking trade and watch manufacturers more firmly in the consciousness of the region and beyond by means of expressive architecture.
The project was supervised by Prof Ludwig Wappner and Prof Riklef Rambow.

Vincent Johannes Witt

Appreciation Student Award

In an era characterised by climate change, a shortage of skilled workers and a scarcity of raw materials, the master design ‘Forschungszentrum Zukunftsbau – Wie bauen wir die Zukunft?’
by Vincent Johannes Witt sees itself as a catalyst for a paradigm shift in architecture in favour of sustainable building technologies. As a large-scale research infrastructure on KIT’s West Campus, the design creates space for interdisciplinary collaboration, enables the development of new building technologies and positions KIT as a pioneer in sustainable building research. The research centre itself is an example of sustainable construction. The use of reused components, flexible and reconfigurable spatial structures and modular utilisation scenarios creates a process-oriented, multifunctional and public building. The work contributes significantly to the development of a sustainable building culture and illustrates how a sustainable future can be shaped through research and innovation in architecture. It was supervised by Prof Moritz Dörstelmann and Prof Dirk Hebel.

Benjamin Weber

Nominated Student Award

“Nachhaltige Quartiersentwicklung im ländlichen Raum”

Master thesis supervised by Prof. Dirk Hebel and Prof. Andreas Wagner

Hanna Sartorius

Nominated Student Award

“Schützende Räume _ Mannheims verborgene Schätze”

Master thesis supervised by Prof. Ludwig Wappner and Prof. Henri Bava