Paul Bode Prize for Visions of Kassel Harbor

The Nassauische Heimstätte | Wohnstadt (NHW) group of companies awarded the Paul Bode Prize for students at Kassel University for the second time.

Second place was not awarded, third place went to Christin Schäfer and Eric Schmidt, and Aridona Kuliqi and Cornelius Böttger. Recognitions were given to Luisa Königer and Fridjof Schmidt as well as Fryderyk Rhein and Lukas Schwirowski. The jury, consisting of NHW Managing Director Monika Fontaine-Kretschmer, Bernd Peuster (NHW, Head of Acquisition North), Christof Nolda (Kassel City Building Council), Prof. Marc Frohn (FAR Architects Berlin; KIT Karlsruhe Head of Department Space + Design), Sebastian Stürzel (Bankert Linker & Hupfeld), Ulrike Pape (pape + pape, Kassel) and the jury chair Prof. Andrea Wandel (Wandel Lorch Götze Wach Architekten, Saarbücken/Frankfurt; Trier University of Applied Sciences), made their decision after a meeting lasting several hours. The prize, worth 10,000 euros, is sponsored by NHW and awarded jointly with the Department of Architecture, Urban Planning and Landscape Planning (ASL) at the University of Kassel. A total of 17 works were submitted, most of which were worked on by two students in a team of.

"We have seen many excellent entries today. The Paul Bode Award is a benefit for the students, who gain practical experience, but also for us as a company, as we can take in many fresh impulses and transfer them to our daily work," said NHW Managing Director and jury member Monika Fontaine-Kretschmer on Thursday at the award ceremony in the university's new ASL building. "Creating sustainable urban neighborhoods that combine spaces for living and working is an important task of our time. The goal of the task for Kassel Harbor was therefore to develop proposed solutions for this that impressively demonstrate various implementation options - and we really succeeded."

"The Paul Bode Prize allows students of architecture, landscape architecture and planning, and urban and regional planning to come together as a team - and across all three institutes - and work out solutions with each other on an equal footing," adds Prof. Frank Kasprusch from the Institute of Architecture. "We see the award as a laboratory for the neighborhood of tomorrow. This manifests itself, among other things, in the competition task. Answers are sought to the burning questions of living together, the interplay of working worlds and living models."

The "Design and Sustainable Building" department, headed by Prof. Kasprusch, offered this year's Paul Bode Prize and issued the theme "Kassel Harbor Experiment" in coordination with NHW. "A very broad field of architectural, urban and landscape planning solutions has emerged that bear a clear signature and are consistently dedicated to the neighborhood of tomorrow. I thank all participants for their outstanding work, congratulate the students of the winning entries, and thank NHW for its support."

Wanted: Ideas for Kassel Harbor

The port is located close to the center in the northeastern part of Kassel, but is not perceived as part of the city. This is partly due to poor connectivity, recreational use in the form of a marina that is not accessible to the general public, and mono-functional commercial uses with no public infrastructure. In many European cities, the - mostly former - port areas have been and are being redeveloped into attractive urban quarters. Mix of uses, densification and quality of stay determine the degree of success and acceptance. For the port of Kassel, this potential has been identified, but has not been structured in a superordinate planning manner or embedded in a forward-looking urban development. The Paul Bode Award 2022 was intended to work out this potential with the aim of creating a condensed, multifunctional urban quarter with a high quality of stay, diversity of use and social mix. The planning also had to take into account the protection of historic monuments, flood scenarios, and improved pedestrian and bicycle connections to the Wesertor urban quarter.

The award-winning works will be on display until November 17 in the Studierendenhaus at Universitätsplatz 10 in Kassel.

Background: Paul Bode Prize

Supporting young people in their education is one of the pillars of the social commitment of the Nassauische Heimstätte | Wohnstadt Group. The Paul Bode Prize is awarded every two years to students at the University of Kassel and is intended to promote the technical and political examination of new tasks by the students in the spirit of socially oriented housing development and urban planning. The focus is on ensuring a secure and socially responsible housing supply for broad segments of the population and on taking into account housing seekers who have difficulties in finding housing due to their personal circumstances or circumstances. The focus is on Kassel and its region. Experimental, visionary housing and hybrid concepts and the associated open spaces are honored.