The jury has decided and nominated Franziska Wollscheid's thesis "Urban Breakout" as the best master's thesis of 2020. In addition, the jury has also nominated the work for the Archiprix 2021. Congratulations! Information and more images at www.archiprix.org [2].

Congratulations to Valeria Shchipitsyna, who was awarded the Clara von Simson-Prize [6] this spring. The Clara von Simson Prize honours the best final theses (diploma, master's) of female graduates of the TU Berlin, primarily from the natural and technical sciences. So far, hardly any architecture graduates have been among the prize winners. Special thanks therefore go to Prof. Jacob van Rijs for his support and supervision!

Here is a short description of the project by Valeria Shchipitsyna: 

"The master thesis "Urban Store" offers a solution for cities like Berlin to create places that encourage the population to engage in intercultural exchange and a sustainable way of life. Currently, more and more areas in Berlin are being built on, predominantly with high-priced housing and commercial office buildings. In the process, public space and places of exchange in the districts are increasingly being lost. At the same time, society is suffocating in the waste of its addiction to consumption.

The master's thesis deals with the current development of consumption and the approaches of Sharing Economy. The solution developed is an "Urban Store". A center that functions like a large library of things and thus offers neighborhood and city residents a place where they can not only borrow things for daily use, but also make their old equipment available to the community. In workshops offered there, the objects are repaired together in a workshop. The "Urban Store" is both a platform for neighbourhood management and associations, and simply a place that can be used by the neighbourhood residents according to their wishes and needs. In addition to researching the Sharing Economy, developing solutions and the actual design, an essential part of the master's thesis is the extensive analysis of the city. It is important that the Urban Store does not occupy scarce space for the construction of housing. By means of an empirical investigation and typification of Berlin's green spaces, areas were identified that should be converted into common areas and thus become available for the construction of "Urban Store" pavilions. The pavilion was developed as a prototype and can thus be built on any of the three developed types of plots, which can be found in every neighbourhood in Berlin. Thanks to a modular system, it can also be adapted to the wishes of the immediate surroundings. The technical construction also made use of cost-effective, modular standard elements, which ensures that the pavilion is affordable. Not only were new detailed technical solutions worked out for the design, but materials and techniques were also used in a completely new context.

Urban Store is intended to inspire building for the city and its inhabitants and to show that architecture not only needs innovative, social and technical solutions, but also has a beneficial task towards the population".

The World University Service (WUS) has honored two theses on topics of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The award was shared this year and went to Svenja Binz, Julia Mira Brennauer and Phil-Torben von Lueder (TU Berlin) and to Jennifer-Louise Robinson (University of Osnabrück).

"In our master thesis "Urban agriculture in camp communities: new perspectives" [8] we dealt with the structures of Palestinian refugee camps that have grown over decades. With the help of an analysis of local dependency relationships and material flows, we investigated the question of the extent to which urban agriculture can be used as a tool for adapting to climate change and the challenges this poses for working in fragile contexts. The master's thesis is to be understood as a basis for discussion of how climate change adaptation can work in the precarious conditions of Palestinian refugee camps in the context of development cooperation. It is particularly exciting to discuss climate protection issues in rooms that are characterized by refugee experiences. "

The work was supervised by Philipp Misselwitz (Habitat Unit [9]), Emily Kelling and Martina Löw (Department of Planning and Architectural Sociology [10]).

Congratulations!

Faculty VI annually awards the prize for the best thesis. Below you will find this year's submissions for the Master Typology courses (M-ARCH-T) and Master Architecture. The Faculty Council decides on the best work in December, which will be announced here shortly afterwards.

Congratulations to Team Dis + Ko for the award “Best Thesis” in the category “Master Architecture”!

The jury's description is:
We propose the master thesis "Hortopie Jacobi" as the best thesis. In the context of housing shortages and the challenges of climate change, the students deal with the conversion of an inner-city cemetery in Berlin. The cemetery on Hermannstrasse, which is closed in 2019, forms the starting point for the development of usage scenarios that take into account the idea of ​​a post-fossil society. Current discourses on ownership, forms of living together, and ecological aspects of sustainability are reflected on by the graduates and binding planning principles are drawn up. This process was carried out collectively and interdisciplinarily. The graduates implement the various program components of the overall planning into independent architectural designs. The urban development framework and usage scenarios previously developed not only serve as a starting point for individual design planning, but also as a thesis that is checked and refined in relation to the processing of the designs. This form of cooperation and the quality of the individual contributions lead to a future-oriented master's thesis, which will not only encourage students to face the future challenges in the areas of urban planning and architecture with commitment and confidence.

The IfA-Jury: Nilhan Tezer, Nina Pawlicki, Jörg Stollmann, Hendrik Schultz

Authors: Binta von Rönn, Flavia-Ioana Biianu, Julian Mönig, Lisa-Marie Kolbinger, Lisa Reis, Nina Wester, Samuel Reichl, Sina Jansen

Congratulations to Frederik Springer for the award “Best Thesis” in the “M-ARCH-T” category!

The jury's description is:
The thesis is based on the hypothesis that, despite all professionalism, the successful work of architects always requires a certain amount of projection, speculation and persuasiveness, which is provocatively exaggerated as high-stakes. In addition to the architectural design, the work uses the media of the literary novel, the performance and the exhibition. In terms of content, the work offers a discourse on the relationship between truth and lies in architecture and an exciting political aspect: the design, which proposes large-scale housing construction on the site of a playground in the affluent Berlin district of Zehlendorf, which integrates affordable living and non-profit neighborhood functions into the " Robe ”of a villa architecture. The work moves at the interface between art, theater, literature and architecture. The graduate succeeds in integrating philosophical and literary references into his work in a playful and discursive manner. Based on a critical look at architectural professional practice, she develops a promising field of action for politically motivated design and its publicity-relevant involvement in current urban policy debates.