AA Alumni Gustav Düsing and Max Hacke’s project, Study Pavilion TU Braunschweig has been awarded the 2024 Mies van der Rohe Award and named Europe’s best new building. This makes Gustav and Max, who founded each of their individual studios in 2015 and 2016 respectively, the youngest people to receive the award.

The project, which is a two-story campus building designed to provide student workspaces, was completed in January 2023 and is sited in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, Germany. Gustav and Max’s aim was to create a multifunctional and accessible space for all students, offering a contemporary learning environment that complements the existing surrounding campus typologies. The result is an open-space plan that supports a variety of activities, providing a flexible environment for group work, seminars, lectures and relaxation.

The project was awarded for ‘its ability to challenge the constraints and imagery of sustainability’. Internally, the building was designed through zoning rather than fixed walls to enhance flexibility and longevity of use in the building. Overall, the building was designed to be entirely dismantled and relocated. The primary support structure is a 3x3m grid and the façade is demountable, following the principle of a ‘future material depot’.

Image: The Study Pavilion TU Braunschweig. Photo by Iwan Baan.