12 categories, 181 entries, and more than 22,800 votes: The best architectural projects in Baden honoured at grand gala with roughly 250 guests attending.

EUROPÄISCHES FORUM AM RHEIN / NEURIED / GERMANY

The big winners of the Baden Architecture Prize 2022 are Volksbank Freiburg and the architectural bureau centred around Hadi Teherani. They won the “BADAP ’22” for the new Volksbank-Areal complex across from the central train station in Freiburg in what is referred to as a “prestige category”: Corporate Architecture. More than 4,000 votes were submitted online beforehand for this category alone.

Inaugurated in 2021, the building complex was honoured on Saturday at the second grand BADAP Gala held at the event location Europäisches Forum am Rhein. Among those attending were honorary patron Frank Scherer, prize founder Jürgen Grossmann, the members of the jury chaired by Dr Fred Gresens, as well as a number of prize-presenting speakers and sponsors. “The new structural complex that marks the cityscape is simultaneously a gateway for travellers by train and a calling card for the city,” the jury stated in its reasoning for nomination. “The architecture is compelling, all the way to the interior furnishings and product design.” Mr Grossmann, the initiator of the Baden Architecture Prize, praised the project as well: “With Volksbank-Areal, a construction project has prevailed in the online voting that represents Baden more than successfully. Terrific modern architecture that reflects the spirit of a modern, self-confident Black Forest metropolis.”

The voting public and jury awarded prizes to Baden’s best architecture in 12 categories. The winners included the hyper-modern vehicle registration office in Lahr (Caruso Architekten), the annex and inter alia museum-like conversion of the historic circular kiln in Zell am Harmersbach (wwg-architekten BDA), and the church pavilion by Justin Vogel (Young Talent Award, endowed with EUR 2,000 in prize money), assembled and dismantled for a horticultural show. And not only the architects were honoured: the builders were, too. They received a trophy in the shape of an engraved aluminium plaque which can be mounted onto the building.

The expert jury for the BADAP was composed of architects, designers, engineers and trade journalists from Germany, France and the Netherlands, and included

Claude Denu (Denu et Paradon, Strasbourg), Barbara Friedrich, Peter Ippolito (Ippolito Fleitz Group, Stuttgart), Silvia Olp (Verein zur Förderung von Architektur, Engineering und Design, Stuttgart), Astrid Piber (UNStudio, Amsterdam), Knut Stockhusen (Schlaich Bergermann Partner, Stuttgart, New York, Shanghai), Dr. Ing. Fred Gresens (District Chairman of the Chamber of Architects Baden-Württemberg, Southern Baden) as its presiding juror, and the Chief District Administrator of the District of Ortenau, Frank Scherer, as honorary patron for the BADAP.

Caption: from left: 1. Tobias Oberle, Freyler Industriebau GmbH, 2. Herr Patrick Springer - Volksbank Freiburg eG - Dipl.Ing.(FH)Architekt /Leiter Abteilung Gebäudemanagement, 3. Herr Uwe Barth - Volksbank Freiburg eG - Vorstandssprecher, 4. Frau Tibi – Hadi Teherani Architects GmbH, 5. Herr Günter Wiedemann - ehemals Volksbank Freiburg eG - Leiter Abteilung Gebäudemanagement (jetzt Ruhestand), 6. Herr Johannes Baumgarnter - Direktor Stiftungen der Erzdiözese, 7. Frank Weis, LVM Versicherung Weis Zengin Kollegen

Photo: Benedikt Spether