New School of Architecture Siegen

Tue, August 27, 2024

How could the surroundings of the future New Siegen School of Architecture be designed in the former Siegen newspaper printing house? Architecture students from Siegen and all over Germany explored this question together with five renowned architecture firms at the second Siegen Summer School.

Creating new connections between buildings. Making the various campus areas more accessible - as barrier-free as possible and for everyone. Revitalize small squares and use them as social spaces where university members, residents and the city's population can meet: These and other ideas for the further development of the inner city campus of the University of Siegen were developed by students at the second Siegen Summer School of the Department of Architecture. The topic of this year's event was how a campus feeling can be created in the area between the Lower Castle in Siegen, the New School of Architecture, which will be built in the former printing house of the Siegener Zeitung newspaper, and Häutebachweg all the way to Löhrtor.

After the successful first round last year, the team from the Department of Architecture led by Prof. Dr. Thorsten Erl invited students to a summer school again this year. Around 50 students from Siegen, the whole of Germany and beyond accepted the invitation. They spent a week at the Druckhaus working in different teams with architects from five renowned architecture firms from Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin and Cartagena (Spain). In terms of content, the second summer school followed on from the first: After focusing on concepts for the design of the New School of Architecture in the Druckhaus a year ago, the focus was now on the design of the surrounding area in the Häutebachweg/Löhrtor area, where the university's Department of Education could find a new home in the future. The guiding principle of "Reset, Reshape, Reuse" still applied: The focus of the considerations was not on demolition and new construction, but on incorporating, redesigning and reusing existing buildings and structures.

"The students investigated the location and existing structures from a wide range of different perspectives and took a very broad approach. They gathered information, conducted interviews with those responsible, local residents, neighboring institutions and the future users of the site and walked the grounds. This resulted in a wide range of ideas and concepts for the expansion of the inner city campus," explains Prof. Dr. Thorsten Erl. The teams presented their results to the interested public as part of an exhibition and tour. University Chancellor Ulf Richter and Jonas Tratz from the architecture firm FAKT, under whose direction the winning design for the New School of Architecture was created, commented on the concepts. Richter was impressed by the variety of ideas and perspectives for the further development of the inner city campus: "The presentations have shown what potential can still be leveraged here. My takeaway is that meeting places and barrier-free paths in between are central to the campus concept from the students' and architects' point of view. The teams have developed very exciting ideas for this."

The five teams and their concepts:

• Team Urban Mining, architectural office "Baukreisel" (Berlin) The students looked beyond the immediate neighborhood into the region to identify two thematic strands: 1) What spatial potential is there? 2) What material flows are there? With regard to the use of space, the idea arose to build a bridge to Löhrtor-Gymnasium in order to create an extended campus feeling. In order to recycle materials as much as possible, the team proposed a local "component exchange", through which demolition materials could be collected and put to new use.
• Team Mapping, architectural office "Projektbüro" (Hamburg) The "Team Mapping" approached the topic using the situation analysis method. The students first looked at the current qualities of the area, as well as the areas of disruption. On this basis, they then took a closer look at individual locations. Specifically, the team developed the idea of turning the corner of Häutebachweg/Löhrtor into a meeting place for university members and city residents - including seating and a table tennis table.
• Team Urban Ecology, architects Pedro Garcia Martinez + Antonio Curezuela Motos (Cartagena, Spain) How can barriers be overcome and how could smaller squares be used as social spaces? These questions were at the heart of the Urban Ecology team's considerations. Based on this, the students developed a whole range of possible measures: A wide flight of steps that could lead from Häutebachweg up to Unteres Schloss, modular seating for Schlossplatz, breaking up the white bank in the Häutebachweg area and creating a market and meeting place on the roof of the Löhrtor parking garage.
• Team Inclusion, architecture firm coopdisco + Ana Bisbicus (Berlin) The students dealt intensively with the topic of "inclusion" and took to the streets: they spoke to passers-by as well as local institutions such as the AWO and Frauenhilfe about norms, existing barriers and what is important for people to create places that are accessible to all. The team presented the results of their research in an accessible and transparent way for all citizens along the wall in front of the Druckhaus.
• Team Conversion/New Build, architectural office Demo Working Group (Cologne) With a "radically optimistic" attitude and the demand for "retroactive resilience", concrete design sketches were created for existing buildings such as the Mariengemeinde, the Kreishandwerkerschaft/IKK or the Villa Sauer. Among the concrete proposals was a passageway through the Villa Sauer to create a direct connection between the future campus and the existing canteen.

Text: T.Hoffmann, Press Office University of Siegen

Thursday, July 13, 2023

Together with the architecture firms Adept, AgwA, Assemble Studio, Hütten und Paläste, Fakt+Gustav Düsing and ZRS+coopdisco, students of architecture have the opportunity to take part in the competition for the conversion of the former printing house into the "New School of Architecture" from August 14 to 19. The event is worth 3 credit points. Recognition is the responsibility of the respective home university of the participating students.

If you want to get involved in the process of thinking together the existing and the new, then save the date! Current information will be published continuously on Instagram: @architektur.unisiegen

• Background: In the course of massively changing realities of life, new answers are needed for architecture and society. We are responding to this with the idea of a "New School of Architecture Siegen", which not only adapts to the social, sustainable and technical challenges, but is committed to consciously and decisively helping to shape them. The former printing house of the Siegener Zeitung newspaper is to serve as the new location for the architecture. The aim of the conversion of the printing house is to create innovative architecture that will serve as a model for new forms of university coexistence and for dealing with existing buildings as an important resource. The participatory development of a new vision is required. How can architecture teaching and research be designed to be diverse, inspiring and participatory?
• Project: The six architecture firms will each form working groups of 10 students who will develop a design for the "New Siegen School of Architecture" on site.
  These designs will be entered into a competition process, at the end of which the best design will be realized. In addition to the design work, the Summer School will be rounded off with input events, lectures and communal evenings.
• Application: The number of places is limited. Therefore, please apply by 18.07. by e-mail to: druckhaus@architektur.uni-siegen.de
  Show with a medium of your choice (text, drawing, photography, etc.) on a PDF page why the Summer School should not take place without you.
  In addition, we need the following information: Degree program, semester, home university, address, contact details.
  If you have any questions, please also contact: druckhaus@architektur.uni-siegen.de
• Accommodation: To a limited extent, affordable accommodation can be organized through the University of Siegen's student network. If you are interested, please indicate this in your application.

We look forward to welcoming you to Siegen!

Participating offices:

• Adept works across disciplines from urban planning and strategic development to building architecture and public space. Adept designs holistic, sustainable places, spaces and communities. Starting from the site and its physical and immaterial conditions, history and project vision, the office develops projects in dialog with all stakeholders to ensure that the future grows naturally from the present and the context in which it is rooted. The aim of the projects is to create new places for everyone.
• AgwA is an office founded in 2003 that works primarily with a project-specific architectural language. This results from an initial, reflexive process that deals with the existing situation, the urban context and the physical attributes of the building. The projects are guided by principles such as cautious boldness, an experimental approach to construction and structure, economy and criticality. Moreover, for AgwA, the opportunity to build also means the opportunity to research.
• Assemble Studio is a multidisciplinary collective working in the fields of architecture, design and art. Founded in 2010 to realize a single, self-built project, Assemble has since created a diverse and award-winning body of work, maintaining a democratic and collaborative working method that enables built, social and research-based work at multiple scales.
• Hütten und Paläste from Berlin comprises an office that focuses on experimental architecture for urban housing and living. The focus is on solutions for extreme or special locations and building tasks. The focus is on creating active connections between interior and exterior spaces. They understand buildings as open systems that are in constant exchange with their physical and metaphysical surroundings. The reduction to the essentials in terms of space, technology, construction and resources, as well as building with wood, determine the designs.
• FAKT + Gustav Düsing is an association of two young, research-based architecture firms from Berlin. They share an experimental approach to spatial design, production and sustainability strategies. The two offices work both in the academic field and in the realization of experimental architectural projects. Their way of working combines critical theory with architectural practice and aims to find new ways in which architecture can respond to our current ecological and socio-political challenges.
• ZRS + Coopdisco develops architecture that uses resources responsibly and efficiently and serves the user in the long term. ZRS has particular research and construction expertise in the areas of building with clay, wood and bamboo. Coopdisco is a cooperative of architects who are committed to urban development for the common good. Always with the aim of developing places that are used, needed and preserved as common goods.