Honourable mention for Anne-Lisa Custers at 34th Euregional Prize for Architecture

The Euregional Prize for Architecture is an initiative of SCHUNCK, Museum for contemporary art & architecture, in Heerlen (NL). The prize is awarded annually for the best final-year projects of the five faculties of architecture based in the cities of Aachen, Hasselt, Liège and Maastricht. The international jury for this 34th edition consisted of Johann Eckartz, Ragnhild Klußmann, Martin Sobota and Andrea Tenuta.

First prize for ‘Wo Wir Alt Werden’
First prize (€2,500) went to Charlotte Dahmen and Marlene Kossmann (RWTH Aachen) for their project ‘Wo Wir Alt Werden’. According to the jury, this winning project impresses with a highly extensive work on a simple but more and more important theme: where do we grow old? What kind of needs will we have in our daily life, which kind of spaces will we need and how can we identify with our environment? The two authors analyze deeply and reflect systematically, they did a lot of interviews and research on different scales to figure out new ways of designing around very personal objects. The results are small interventions in generic urban typologies, realistic and modest but with a big passion of creating really good places for elderly people. This very personal and multilayered project has strong aspects of urbanism, social impact and an awareness of resources, and shows us new ways of designing and thinking about space. In this work we see what will be the tasks for architecture within the next years: to look very carefully on every aspect of space, to reduce complexity while asking a lot and find small but new spatial answers.

Second prize for ‘Material Fabrik Köln Kalk’
Second prize (€1,250) went to Luka Hauschild (FH Aachen) for his project ‘Material Fabrik Köln Kalk’. For this project, the jury particularly appreciated the choice of the topic as well as the analysis which generated a complex programming of an old industrial building. It touches on current concerns of reuse and circularity in construction. The jury thought it was very appropriate the way this program is installed into the building, with particular attention to the hierarchy of uses, the important logistical challenges as well as other issues inherent in the conversion of this type of building. The project installs this new complexity in a very skillful way because it reactivates the building while keeping almost all of its elements and expressive potential. Interventions are limited to what is necessary to adapt the premises and generate a new intensity. Finally, the consistency that runs through the project and the relevance of the final result attracted the jury.

Third prize for ‘Du bist keine Schönheit?’
The project ‘Du bist keine Schönheit?’ by Lennard Flörke (RWTH) won the third prize (€500). This project deals with a type of building that is ‘vor Arbeit ganz grau’ and helps us to appreciate this type, and rethinks the definition of beauty. The extensive collection of buildings that are often in danger of demolition proves the high relevance of this topic. The love for this house, the library of his childhood, is obvious in the project and impressed the jury. The existing structure is handled carefully and targeted interventions result in a transformation to a new mix of uses. Public facilities characterize the lower floors - a school, a kindergarten and the library. The upper floors, previously used as offices, will be converted into apartments by adding a new access route in the inner courtyard. The new development allows the existing long corridor to be used for serving functions and the new residential units to be flexibly arranged.

Honourable mentions
Emma van den Berg (AAM), Anna-Lisa Custers (UHasselt), and Linus Hermann (RWTH Aachen) received honorable mentions for "The Family Vacation Home", "Domus Memoria" and "Trassen" respectively.

Exhibition EAP
(free of charge)
18 nov 2024 - 12 dec 2024, Monday - Friday 08:30 - 18:30
FH Aachen, Bayernallee 11, 52066 Aachen (Germany)

For more information about the 30 nominations, the best final-year studies of 2024, including jury report, video presentations and project analysis, go to 34EAP - The Euregional Prize for Architecture 2024.

Credits pictures: Pascal Moors - Nose for photography

On the picture: Luka Hauschild (FH Aachen), Emma van den Berg (AAM), Marlene Kossmann & Charlotte Dahmen (RWTH Aachen), Anna-Lisa Custers (UHasselt), Linus Hermann (RWTH Aachen) Lennard Flörke and (RWTH Aachen)