State Award for Architecture / Living – forward-looking, climate-friendly

Together with the client, Wohnungsbau-Unternehmen, SMAQ was awarded the State Prize for Architecture Lower Saxony 2020 for the project “New Living on Alte Döhrener Strasse, Hanover”. The jury, headed by the Augsburg architect Titus Bernhard, emphasized that the playful arrangement of the four point buildings had created an attractive residential area in Hanover’s southern part of the city with condominiums and rental apartments as well as an inclusive residential project. The new quarter has a mediating effect in the heterogeneous environment and creates at the same time a strong address. The advantages are supplemented by a graduated system of common open spaces. The result is a place that exemplarily combines sensual impression and high quality of use, community and individuality for different user groups.

The state award is the highest architectural award in Lower Saxony and is awarded by the state in cooperation with the Lower Saxony Chamber of Architects. This year it was entitled “Living – future-oriented, climate-friendly!”.

Excerpt from the jury report:
An attractive residential area with condominiums and rental apartments as well as an inclusive housing project has been created in the Hanover district of Südstadt. The playful arrangement of the four cubic, compact structures conveys in the heterogeneous environment and at the same time creates a strong own address. Three of the buildings are connected at the corners. The fourth building is detached and thus forms a public path through the ensemble.

The simple design language of the four-storey cubes is characterized by a calm and restrained, finely crafted architecture with a red clinker brick facade. The material blends in very well with the existing building […] The advantages are not only in the attractive apartments, but are complemented by a tiered system of communal open spaces. The social mix and the future-oriented inclusive housing project for people with disabilities are particularly worthy of recognition. The result is a place that exemplarily combines sensual impression and high quality of use, community and individuality for different user groups.