31 May, 2024 @ 14:21
1 min read

German university campus and Barcelona library are winning designs at Europe’s top architect awards

STUDYING and reading are the winning themes in this year’s prestigious architecture awards.

The two main prizes in the EU Mies award (formerly the Mies van der Rohe award) went to a university study facility in Germany and a city library in Spain.

The Study Pavilion at the Technical University of Braunschweig is ‘joyous’ as the Olive Press discovered on a visit this month.

Featuring slender steel beams, wooden ribbed decks and glass facades, it emphasises sustainability and reusability.

The Study Pavilion TU Braunschweig. Photo by Leonhard Clemens

The clever use of materials allows for different configurations, which can be changed for various student activities and events.

Designed by Gustav Düsing, 30 and Max Hacke, 28, the judges praised how it ‘promotes social exchange and interdisciplinary knowledge between students and teachers alike’. 

The building was chosen from a list of 40 finalists around Europe with the judges also liking the rigour and precision of the project, which came in under its budget of €5.2 million.

Awarding the €60,000 prize they added the building had ‘a clear architectural idea, scrutinised it and pushed it to the limit.’.

The Emerging Architecture Prize (also part of the EU Mies award, the EU’s biennial prize for contemporary architecture) meanwhile, was handed to the Gabriel García Márquez Library in Barcelona.

The Gabriel García Márquez Library. P

Designed by Elena Orte and Guillermo Sevillano of SUMA Arquitectura, the library was planned as a cultural hub for the community.

Its design features a full-height atrium and a series of stacked, perforated spaces, symbolising the form of books.

The library’s structure integrates laminated and cross-laminated timber with steel, and the interior spaces are organised around a central triangular courtyard.

This design not only provides a welcoming environment for library users but also pays homage to the architectural traditions of Barcelona’s Eixample district

Judges said that both projects reflect the principles of the New European Bauhaus, emphasising the integration of green transition concepts into everyday living spaces.

The award ceremony took place at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona, which was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona.

Originally dismantled after the exposition, it was rebuilt according to the original plans in 1986 and inspired the creation of the biennial awards ceremony two years later.

Dilip Kuner

Dilip Kuner is a NCTJ-trained journalist whose first job was on the Folkestone Herald as a trainee in 1988.
He worked up the ladder to be chief reporter and sub editor on the Hastings Observer and later news editor on the Bridlington Free Press.
At the time of the first Gulf War he started working for the Sunday Mirror, covering news stories as diverse as Mick Jagger’s wedding to Jerry Hall (a scoop gleaned at the bar at Heathrow Airport) to massive rent rises at the ‘feudal village’ of Princess Diana’s childhood home of Althorp Park.
In 1994 he decided to move to Spain with his girlfriend (now wife) and brought up three children here.
He initially worked in restaurants with his father, before rejoining the media world in 2013, working in the local press before becoming a copywriter for international firms including Accenture, as well as within a well-known local marketing agency.
He joined the Olive Press as a self-employed journalist during the pandemic lock-down, becoming news editor a few months later.
Since then he has overseen the news desk and production of all six print editions of the Olive Press and had stories published in UK national newspapers and appeared on Sky News.

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