OREANDA-NEWS. The KfW Group presented the annual KfW Awards for Construction and Housing for the eleventh time on the evening of 13 June in Berlin. The competition looked for builders who had created individual as well as energy-efficient housing with unconventional ideas from centrally located, unused premises and empty buildings. The thirteen winners were selected from 164 candidates and awarded prize money totalling EUR 31,500 by the fourteen-member jury chaired by Prof Hans Kollhoff, architect in Zurich/Berlin.

In the presence of Rainer Bomba, State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development, Senior Vice President of KfW Werner Genter presented the prizes to the winners. “With their prize-winning projects, the winners of the KfW Award have applied pioneering urban development and energy solutions. They have created attractive new housing, revived public spaces and provided a social benefit”, said Werner Genter.

State Secretary Bomba emphasised: “With this year’s award KfW has addressed a current topic - redesigning and reviving existing buildings. Using and redeveloping what we have conserves our resources, revives locations and gives them back identity. Young families can redesign existing buildings to suit their housing needs. The participants of the KfW Award stand for a modern model for living - they design the city of tomorrow.”

The winners:

First prize (EUR 10,000): Claudia Cappeller has redeveloped the historic granary at Cathedral Square in Halle (Saale) to current energy efficiency standards. Where grain was once stored, seven unconventional accessible and semi-accessible units are now being built, giving new life to Cathedral Square.

Second prize (EUR 6,000): the heirs of the Old Mill near Friedrichshafen (Ittenhausen) have modernised the buildings of the mill and stables, creating housing, office and workshop space with state-of-the-art information technology for the town community.

Third prize (EUR 4,000): The builders’ group of Lubeck’s Konigstrasse 15 has restored an old school building in an exemplary fashion. They have created semi-accessible, generationally fair housing units, a non-profit cafe and access to the public garden.

The other ten prizewinners:

Joint proprietors of Panzerhalle in Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate

Joint proprietors of factory building “Maria” in Leipzig, Saxony

Astrid and Gerold Weber, historic boiler house in Achern, Baden-Wurttemberg

Family community Hermes-Caesar and Linneweber Winkelgehoft in Dorsel, Rhineland-Palatinate

Robert Gerstl, Regenstauf, historic coach station in Ponholz, Bavaria

Dr Stefan and Alexandra Mohringer, Wiesentheid, Dreiseithof in Feuerbach, Bavaria

E. Daniel and Bianca Priebe, manor house in Diensdorf, Brandenburg

Property developers’ association Glockenstrasse 36, foundry in Stuttgart, Baden-Wurttemberg

Claudia K. Leyh and Tom D. Nicolman, Bernhardshaus in Hermannsfeld, Thuringia

Heike Scheder, Stelzenberg, two residential buildings in Kaiserslautern-Hohenecken, Rhineland Palatinate

The Jury, which was chaired by Professor Hans Kollhoff, was composed of urban developers and energy experts, architects and representatives of the construction and housing business, the media and KfW. KfW introduced the competition “Construction and Housing” in 2003 as one of the main supporters of private home ownership, energy efficiency and accessibility in residential buildings.