Exhibition at the Weissenhof Architecture Gallery, Stuttgart
The Department of Architecture at the University of Siegen is converting a former printing plant in downtown Siegen into a teaching, learning, and studio facility—a project that goes far beyond a mere relocation. For the New School of Architecture Siegen (N_AS), architecture is a social practice that not only accompanies transformation but also actively shapes it. Thus, the project becomes a testing ground for an architectural pedagogy that makes its own institutional environment the subject of design. The starting point was the conviction that the questions of the present cannot be answered by established methods alone. The guiding principle of the renovation is “Reset, Reshape, Reuse”: not demolition and new construction, but the integration, redesign, and reuse of the existing structure.
The New School of Architecture in Siegen sees itself as a contribution to the current debate on the future of architectural education and is testing new approaches directly on site, as part of the ongoing renovation process—initially by relocating teaching to the Interim Campus in the North City Center, and in the medium term by transforming the Druckhaus itself into a prototypical experimental building exemplifying ecologically and socially sustainable university architecture. Numerous initiatives and formats have already emerged from this idea—including the Circular Bar, the Fusion Lab, the Innovation Campus, the Repair and Care Service at the 2023 Biennale, Spatial Mutations, and Intendere—Universities of the Streets. All of them bring together students, faculty, the urban community, and regional partners. For its participatory, collaborative approach, N_AS 2025 was also nominated for the polis Award in the “Inspiring Phase Zero” category.
An exhibition now offers a glimpse into the “engine room” of the emerging New School of Architecture in Siegen: planning fragments and snapshots paint a picture of an idea that is still in the making—unfinished, transformative, and situational.
