On October 15, a jury decided on the winners of the Johannes Göderitz Award. For their architectural concepts, Klaus Nawrocki and Philip Alexander Scholz from the Leibniz University of Hanover and Christoph Peetz and Anne Busemann from the Technical University of Braunschweig were granted the award in the amount of EUR 1200 each. It had been their task to develop a spatial development vision for KIT Campus North together with an implementation procedure.
All concepts and models will be presented to the public until Thursday, October 22, in the entrance hall of the KIT Department of Architecture (building 20.40).
24 concepts were submitted by four different universities. They reflect a wide scope of options as to how the premises of the former Forschungszentrum can be redesigned and further developed to fulfill its new task as KIT Campus North. Many ideas examine the existing situation in detail and develop strategies to redesign Campus North and to create spaces for the researchers to communicate. Other projects rely on interventions here and there, in particular in entrance areas in order to positively influence the perception of the Campus from outside without limiting the possibilities of flexibly adapting the remaining areas to changing requirements of the institutes. The concepts of many students focused on the central axis. Here, they see the functional backbone of the site, some students cover it with buildings or even propose a central green space. A few concepts largely exhaust all options and develop visions of a Campus North with a lake area, gigantic water pools, or a “large signpost” in the form of a group of multi-storey buildings. Most ideas open the southern part of Campus North to the public, many integrate it in the public passenger transport system. Two awards in the amount of EUR 1200 each, one purchase in the amount of EUR 600, and two honorable mentions were granted. The concept of Meike Wittenberg and Poliksen Qorri from KIT was purchased.
“Many interesting ideas have been submitted. They demonstrate once again how important strategic discussions of spatial developments are,” underlined Reinhard Subbert, Head of the KIT Construction and Project Management Service Unit, who was member of the jury together with the Head of the Technical Infrastructure and Services Unit, Dr. Gerhard Schmidt.
This year, the urban development competition was organized by the KIT Institute of Urban, Regional and Landscape Planning. The awards are granted by the Johannes Göderitz Foundation Braunschweig/Hanover that has been organizing a formalized urban planning competition of universities for some years now. This year’s competition started on April 23 when more than 100 future architects and planners-to-be from the Leibniz University of Hanover, the Technical Universities of Braunschweig and Dresden, and KIT visited the KIT Campus North and then designed their concepts within a period of four months. In late August, the best five concepts of every university were sent to the KIT Department of Architecture and subjected to a preliminary examination.
Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 10,000 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,800 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.