When it rains, it pours (awards)
Once again, in this year’s Fritz Höger Brick Award for Architecture round there were participants who also impressed the jury of Ziegelpreis 2021. The “Deutsche Ziegelpreis” is a German brick award that honors outstanding architectural and building art in regard to their energy-efficiency and design. Four out of forty-eight FHP-award winners were twice successful: from refurbished “Gründerzeit” buildings to modern company headquarters.
Densification on historical ground
The new Stylepark building by NKBAK architects at Peterskirchhof in Frankfurt received one of the grand prizes of the “Ziegelpreis”. The cubical structure at the inner courtyard of an early 20th-century building, which includes the landmarked cemetry wall of the Peterskirchhof, had been able to convince the Fritz Höger Brick Award-Jury: The brick building, which combines work and living space, places as nominee among the award-winning projects. “An exemplary contribution to the densification of Frankfurt downtown,” the two committees agreed.
Robust charm meets minimalist aesthetics
The architects Bodensteiner fest BDA Stadtplaner PartGmbH created a very special ambience at Casa Rossa in Chemnitz. The early 20th-century Gründerzeit building remained vacant for three centuries until a rescue plan appeared. Now the old bricks, that were carefully uncovered, enter into an appealing symbiosis with new minimalistic elements. A transformation that received a special prize at Deutsche Ziegelpreis 2021 and at the same time was awarded bronze at the Fritz Höger Award for Brick Architecture (category residential building / apartment complex).
Homey Coporate Headquarters
Another Fritz Höger Award nominee: the company headquarters for the head office of the drugstore chain dm in Karlsruhe (category office and commercial buildings). Faced with the task of creating an alternative type of office park on an open space at the roadside of a motorway, the architecture firm LRO Lederer Ragnarsdóttir Oei GmbH & Co. KG created a building ensemble that resembles the flat corporate hierarchies and embodies hominess. It also received recognition at the Ziegelpreis 2021.
Starting point for revived tradition
Uwe Schröder's “wedding tower” in Plüderhausen highlights a special place. It is located on an orchard where wedding couples revived the old custom of planting a fruit tree on the occasion of their marriage. The tower is made of white and red bricks and forms an architectural starting point for the newly wed couples. It was awarded by the jury of the Ziegelpreis 2021 as well as the Fritz Höger Award committee that gave the building a special mention in the category of public buildings, recreation and sport.
