Schindler Award 2008 Won by German Team from Koblenz

A leading European architecture competition, run by the elevator company Schindler, has been won by a duo from Germany’s Koblenz University of Applied Sciences. Participants had the task of revitalizing a derelict area of the Austrian capital, Vienna, with special emphasis on improving disabled access. Nils Krieger and Thorsten Stelter clinched first prize of €5,000 for their project “Triangle”, while the faculty at Koblenz won the first Schools’ prize of €25,000.

Other students’ and schools’ prizes were handed out at the Schindler Award 2008 ceremony held in the “Kultur- und Kongresszentrum” (KKL) in Lucerne, Switzerland.

The president of the jury, Professor Françoise-Hélène Jourda, said the impressive participation rate was proof of “growing interest in questions of accessibility and universal design”. A total of 369 projects competed for the prestigious Award, with 957 students from 17 European countries taking part. A total of 125 projects made it to the final.

The winners
The second prize of €3,000 went to Jakub Krcmar and Martina Sotkovska of the Czech Republic’s Czech Technical University – Faculty of Architecture. The third prize (€2,000) was won by Krisztian Csemy of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia. Fourth and fifth prizes of €1,000 each were awarded to teams from France’s Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Bretagne, and Finland’s Tampere University of Technology.

The Finnish university also won the second Schools’ prize of €15,000, while Turkey’s Middle East Technical University took the third (€10,000). Schools are awarded prizes for supporting their teams’ participation and for incorporating the issue of accessibility into lectures. Prize money goes to the research unit of the faculty.

Five projects from France, Germany, Austria and Turkey received nominations while four others, from Britain, Belgium, Poland and Austria, were given special mentions. (Full details of each project, and the student and faculty teams, can be found in the Award brochure or on the competition website: www.schindleraward.com.)

The task
Participants were challenged to re-develop a derelict area in center of Vienna, which was once home to a gasworks. They had to create a site that was accessible to all, regardless of physical capability, and which embodied the idea of “inclusive urbanism”. Their projects had to be sustainable, as well as economically and environmentally viable, and provide quality of life for the inhabitants. Jury president, Françoise-Hélène Jourda, said the site was chosen “because it made the students confront some of the traditional problems of a city: traffic, abandoned areas, public transport issues, and the question of integrating the river”.

The competition
The Schindler Award 2008 is the third to be held since the competition was founded in 2003 by the Schindler Group. It is judged by a panel of architects, city planners and disability specialists, who assess how young architects respond to the challenge of designing cities and structures that are inclusive and accessible to all, including the elderly and disabled. The Award requires students to go beyond form, light and materials and consider how their designs will affect the people who must live with them throughout their lifetimes. It has been highly successful in raising awareness of the issue of accessibility among young architects and architectural institutions in Europe. It has also inspired schools of architecture to introduce the topic of accessibility into their curricula.

“It is very important to have competitions which make young architects think about the future of their practice and encourage them to take care of people – all people,” said jury president, Françoise-Hélène Jourda.

About Schindler
The Schindler Group is a leading global mobility provider, present in more than 140 countries. The company designs, manufactures, installs, services and modernizes elevator and escalator systems for almost every building type. Schindler supports sustainable urban development with safe, reliable and ecologically sound mobility solutions.