KfW Group announces the winners of its 12th annual KfW Award for Construction and Housing in Berlin

• Motto: “Row House Renaissance”
• Ten prizes with a total value of EUR 30,000
• Winners from Berlin, Schleswig-Holstein, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony

BERLIN, 04-6-2014 — /EuropaWire/ — The KfW Group has presented the 12th annual KfW Award for Construction and Housing in Berlin. The chosen winners are building owners who have modernised or built new row houses on limited building plots in such a way that they can be used extremely efficiently and provide a place where people can feel good. The ten prize winners were each presented with a cash prize from the total prize money of EUR 30,000 by the twelve-strong panel led by Prof. Hans Kollhoff, an architect based in Zurich/Berlin. Five out of the ten prize winners built a new row house, and the other five each modernised an existing one. The winning entries represent successful architecture that satisfies the ambitious standards of KfW efficient houses and where many smart initiatives have also been implemented to remove barriers.

In the presence of Uwe Beckmeyer, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW head of department Werner Genter presented the KfW Awards to the prize winners. “The winners of the KfW Awards have created attractive and energy-efficient solutions for living space in urban areas. Constructed on small building plots, they offer a lot of floor area and demonstrate astounding design creativity in terms of their facades and interior space,” said Mr Genter.

State Secretary Beckmeyer emphasised: “With the KfW Award for Construction and Housing, KfW sends out an important signal for sustainable, forward-looking construction. Energy efficiency and the absence of barriers in the construction industry are issues that are particularly important to the German federal government as well. The prize winners, who will this year be honoured for projects in the field of terraced housing, are representative of forward-looking trends in Germany. I would like to congratulate the prize winners on this achievement”.

The prize winners:

First prize (of EUR 10,000):

Michelle Howard, Lucio Auri, Caroline Eggel and Jeroen Jacobs created their sophisticated newly built Berlin row house for two families on a thin parcel of land but with spacious rooms. Instead of building the usual dividing wall between two neighbouring houses, both apartments are constructed in such a way that they interlock on each floor.

Second prize (of EUR 6,000):

Holger Braack and Sigrid Strehler in Luebeck demonstrate that sophisticated living and working is possible even in the smallest of spaces. They combined romanticism with high-tech in their old restored town house.

Third prize (of EUR 4,000):

The Maschke-Wezel family have created a town house in collaboration with their neighbours in a new housing district in Tuebingen. They have enhanced the look of this part of town through their open and inviting house.

Fourth prize (of EUR 3,000):

Cornelius and Yvonne Boy have restored a 1920’s style row house in Frankfurt and made it suitable for modern-day living. The project makes it possible to live in a family-friendly, technically up-to-date version of an early modern house with a garden and small roof terrace.

Fifth prize (of EUR 2,000):

Building owner Doris Theisen has enhanced the town centre of Bitburg with her stylish new build. With 15 rented apartments and a local business, the building is located on fallow land on the outskirts of the town and enhances the streets and squares of Bitburg.

The other five prize winners (of EUR 1,000 each):

• Reinhard and Uta Priebe have integrated farm worker residences into a village terraced house in Oldenburg (Schleswig-Holstein)
• Anja and Frank Müller have recreated a typical late 19th century “Gründerzeit” house with brick facade in Zwickau (Saxony)
• Matthias-Claudius-Sozialwerk designed the newly built Claudius-Höfe in Bochum (North Rhine-Westphalia) as a “village within a town”
• Gerhard and Roswitha de Buhr have adapted a listed town row house in Emden (Lower Saxony) to meet today’s requirements
• The Schulte Kellinghaus family in Freiburg (Baden-Wuerttemberg) have created a new build with a glazed gallery space

The panel of experts led by Prof. Hans Kollhoff comprises urban developers and energy experts, architects and representatives from the construction and housing sectors, media and KfW. As one of the largest funders of home ownership as well as energy efficiency and the reduction of barriers in residential buildings, KfW launched the construction and housing competition in 2003.

Through its promotional programmes, KfW helps building owners meet the requirements of modern construction. For information on financing opportunities, visit www.kfw.de or contact us on 0800 539 9002.

Further information on the prize winners and photos from the press are available at www.kfw.de/award. The daily newspaper “Die Welt” is the media partner of the 2014 KfW Awards.

Contact

Sybille Bauernfeind
+49 69 74 31-20 38
+49 69 74 31-32 66
sybille.bauernfeind@kfw.de