European Architecture Prize for student centre EUmiesAward for sustainable building that promotes togetherness

On 14 May, the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe 2024 was awarded to the Student House at Technische Universität Braunschweig, designed by architects Gustav Düsing and Max Hacke. The €60,000 prize is considered the most prestigious European architecture award. The prize was awarded at a ceremony in the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona. The student house has already received numerous other awards, including the German Architecture Prize 2023, the DAM Prize for Architecture in Germany 2024 and the Architecture Prize of the Association of German Architects (BDA) Lower Saxony.

The architects Gustav Düsing and Max Hacke are the youngest team ever to receive the award. And it is the first time since 2011 that the prize has been awarded to a building in Germany.

The Student House. Photo credit: Leonhard Clemens

The models of the selected projects were also shown in the exhibition at the award ceremony. Max Hacke and Gustav Düsing in front of the model of the student house. Picture credits: Anna Mas

The EUmies Awards 2024 exhibition has opened at the Victòria Eugènia Palace in Barcleona, showcasing all 362 nominated works from 38 countries that represent the best European architecture of the last two years. The exhibition will then embark on a European tour, opening at the Casa de la Arquitectura (Madrid) in July and the Architekturzentrum Wien (Vienna) in October. Photo credit: Anna Mas

Architects Gustav Düsing and Max Hacke with the EUmies Award trophy. Photo credit: Anna Mas

(From left) Torsten Markgräfe, Head of Business Unit 3, the architects Gustav Düsing and Max Hacke, Bettina Nöhren, Project Manager Business Unit 3 and Professor Tatjana Schneider are delighted with the award. Photo credit: Anna Mas

Presentation of the trophy: (from left) the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, and the Deputy Director General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission, Gustav Düsing and Max Hacke, as well as the representatives of the TU Braunschweig, Bettina Nöhren, Torsten Markgräfe (both Building Management) and Prof. Tatjana Schneider, Department of Architecture, and Normunds Popens, Deputy Director General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission. Photo credit: Anna Mas

The Student House. Photo credit: Leonhard Clemens

Simple building for the future

The Student House is a hybrid steel and timber construction, based on a flexible modular system. All components, based on a geometric principle, are bolted together rather than glued or welded. This means that the structure can be dismantled and reused like a modular system.

The transparent and open student centre provides 160 study places for students, with plenty of space for social interaction. The building’s good acoustics, thanks to sound-absorbing ceilings, curtains and carpets, allow students to study both in groups and individually.

The jury justified the award by stating that the building had succeeded in “transcending boundaries and preconceptions of sustainability, creating an inviting and playful environment for study, collaboration and gathering through a carefully crafted and unyielding structure. A clear architectural idea has been pursued, revised and pushed to its limits. It is more than a building, it is a versatile system that combines technological progress with a flexible and reusable principle”. With the architecture of the Student House, Technische Universität Braunschweig is promoting a new way of thinking in the current social, ecological and political context.

“I am very proud to have an international architectural beacon at TU Braunschweig in the form of the Student House, which has attracted so much attention throughout Europe,” says Angela Ittel, President of TU Braunschweig. “On the one hand, it is fantastic that the Student House has emerged from a competition among our academic staff in the field of architecture and that its outstanding and forward-looking architecture demonstrates the quality of architectural education at TU Braunschweig. On the other hand, the Student House is a building that exists solely for our students and, with its flexible possibilities as a place of learning, promotes cooperation and exchange in an outstanding way. A true flagship for TU Braunschweig as an attractive place to study”.

The Student House was selected from a total of 362 projects from 38 countries, including 36 from Germany, to be completed between April 2021 and May 2023. In February this year, an international jury announced the five finalists, including the Student House as the only entry from Germany. The Student House is only the second university building to receive the award. In 2022, the Town House at Kingston University in London won the EUmies Award.

The jury emphasised that the shortlisted and winning works form an inseparable whole. They provide a better understanding of how contemporary architecture deals with sustainability, social equity, technological progress, health and well-being, cultural preservation, resilience and adaptation, economic feasibility and globalisation within an ethical and ideological as well as pragmatic practice.

The youngest winners

Berlin architects Gustav Düsing and Max Hacke are the youngest winners of the EUmies Awards. Both architects worked as research assistants in the Department of Architecture at TU Braunschweig. In 2017, they won the internal competition organised by TU Braunschweig among the academic staff of the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences.

Award ceremony on 14 May in Barcelona

The award ceremony took place on 14 May 2024 at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona as part of the EUmies Awards Day. The programme included presentations by the winners and finalists, discussions with architects, clients, policy makers and jury members, and an exhibition of the 362 buildings that took part in the EUmies Awards 2024. The event marks the start of the Barcelona Architecture Weeks.