Living and working in a department store Laves Prize for Braunschweig architecture students Antonia Stöcker and Paul Knauer

The architecture students at Technische Universität Braunschweig continue on their successful course. After numerous awards last year, one of the five first prizes in the Laves Prize 2023 has now also gone to Braunschweig. Antonia Stöcker and Paul Knauer were honoured for their work “CEONA – A temple of consumption under pressure to change”. The Laves Prize is awarded annually by the Laves Foundation to students of architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and urban planning at universities and colleges in Niedersachsen.

Antonia Stöcker in front of her master’s design “CEONA – a temple of consumption under pressure to change”. Paul Knauer was unfortunately unable to attend the award ceremony. Photo credit: Kai-Uwe Knoth

For the first time, the foundation awarded five equal prizes of 1,000 euros each on the evening of Thursday 11 January. The President of the Chamber of Architects of Niedersachsen and Chairman of the Board of the Laves Foundation, Robert Marlow, presented the awards at the DOMOTEX trade fair in Hanover. The jury, chaired by Professor Anke Bertram from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hanover, selected the winners and a total of eight commendations from a record number of 115 entries – including three for TU Braunschweig. It was particularly pleasing to see how well the entries were spread across the universities in Niedersachsen and the four different disciplines.

A temple of consumption under pressure to change

Antonia Stöcker and Paul Knauer impressed the jury with their masterplan ‘CEONA – A temple of consumption under pressure to change’ for the conversion of the C&A department stores in Braunschweig into a live-and-work use. Their work has already been awarded 3rd prize in the Rudolf Lodders Prize 2023.

“Large department stores are increasingly being closed in Braunschweig’s city centre … In the future, alternative use concepts will be essential to restore the attractiveness of the city centre,” the two architecture students emphasise in their work, which was developed at the Institute of Design and Building Design under Professor Dan Schürch. Antonia Stöcker and Paul Knauer started by taking a close look at the existing building and realised that it was a structure made up of different construction phases and periods: “In the floor plan, the different support grids converging on each other make the construction phases clearly legible. The result is the image of a structural patchwork”. The students were able to assign their own qualities to the different construction phases and ‘patches’, resulting in a variety of uses. Their design includes a mix of residential (some with studios), small-scale retail, co-working, small craft businesses, a workshop and a canteen in the building.

The winners of the Laves Prize with Professor Anke Bertram and the Chairman of the Laves Foundation, Robert Marlow, from left to right: Antonia Stöcker, Professor Anke Bertram, Robert Marlow, Hannah Selina Dietze, Miriam Krüssel, Antonia Haffner, Lina Nikolic. Photo credit: Kai-Uwe Knoth

A new identity for old buildings

Other Braunschweig students were recognised for their work, which was also produced at the Institute for Conceptual and Architectural Design. Merle Riemer and Leon Kremer were honoured for their design for the conversion of the Galeria Karstadt department store on Bohlweg into a concert hall. Their work “House of Music Braunschweig” had already won first prize in the Rudolf Lodders Prize 2023. Gesa Teichert was awarded for her design “Giants through the ages – documentation of a region”. She designed a documentation centre on the changes to the landscape caused by open-cast lignite mining in Lusatia. The centre is to be built largely from recycled components from the region. Jan Funk took a closer look at the prefabricated apartment blocks of the 1960s and 1970s. He created a new identity for each building in the identity-less and anonymous row buildings on Heinrich-Heine-Strasse in Berlin and was also awarded the Laves Prize for his work.

Professor Dan Schürch of the Institute of Conceptual and Architectural Design is delighted with his students’ success: “Winning architecture prizes is not just a matter of fame and honour. It shows that our students are engaging with the zeitgeist and working on relevant issues. They are designing and building our future!”

The Laves Prize

Every year the Laves Foundation awards the Laves Prize, which is endowed with 5,000 euros. The prize is awarded to works that are dedicated to the holistic and complex quality of design and take into account sustainability considerations. A special in-depth study of the planning that goes beyond the overall design is expected. This may be a student research project in the field of building construction, urban design, open space design, interior design or furniture making. The competition is open to all students of architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and urban planning at universities and colleges in Niedersachsen.

Further information: www.lavesstiftung.de/themen-projekte/lavespreis