Success in Series: Architecture Students Impress in Prestigious Competitions
Awards for Projects at the EUmies Young Talent Architecture Awards, the University Award for Timber Construction, the BauNetz Campus Masters, and the JOANES Prize
2025/05/30
Students and graduates of the Department of Architecture at TU Darmstadt have impressed in recent months with several (final) projects at both national and international levels. Awards and shortlist placements in no fewer than four architecture competitions highlight the design quality, conceptual strength, and social relevance of their work.
University Timber Construction Award 2025 – 1st Prize for Xing Cao
Xing Cao received first prize in this year’s University Timber Construction Award for her Master’s thesis Børsen – Hjemsted for Dansk Håndværk, supervised by the Department of Design and Building Construction (Prof. Felix Waechter).
The jury praised the project for its compelling architectural and structural approach to timber construction, as well as its intelligent reinterpretation of Copenhagen’s historic stock exchange building. The project was awarded a prize of €2,500.
EUmies Awards Young Talent 2025 – Shortlist Placement for Philipp Schmitz
With his Master’s thesis Sendlinger Küche <3, Philipp Schmitz was selected for the shortlist of the EUmies Awards Young Talent 2025, a Europe-wide competition. His work was developed at the Department of Design and Spatial Planning under the supervision of Prof. Johanna Meyer-Grohbrügge, Robert Anton M.Sc., and Dipl.-Ing. Katharina Volgger.
The thesis explores the architectural and urban potential of the Gärtnerhalle in Munich’s Sendling district—a site situated between the historic city center and the wholesale market. The focus lies on urban food systems and the adaptive reuse of existing structures.
The shortlisted projects are part of the exhibition “Intelligens. Talent. EUmies Awards Young Talent 2025,” which opened on May 9, 2025, at Palazzo Mora as part of the official collateral program of the Venice Architecture Biennale.
BauNetz Campus Masters – 2nd Place for Haya Al Bitar
In March/April 2025, Haya Al Bitar was awarded 2nd place in the BauNetz Campus Masters competition. Her Master’s thesis Børsen | Hjemsted for Dansk Håndværk explores building within the existing urban fabric, proposing a new House of Crafts on the site of the burned-down Old Stock Exchange in Copenhagen.
The jury—Martin Baur and Florian Latsch of Baur & Latsch Architekten—particularly praised the fusion of old and new, as well as the atmospheric quality of the designed spaces.
JOANES Prize – Shortlist Placements for Two TU Darmstadt Projects
Two projects by students from TU Darmstadt were selected from a total of 195 submissions for the shortlist of the JOANES Prize: Mezzanine+ by Hannes Strohmenger and Weglassen by Daniel Stahlberg.
Both projects were developed at the Department of Design and Spatial Planning (Prof. Johanna Meyer-Grohbrügge) as part of a competition focused on the development of prototypes for future-oriented cooperative housing above supermarket branches.
The repeated awards highlight the ongoing commitment and design excellence of the work produced at the Department of Architecture at TU Darmstadt. They also reflect the socially relevant questions that students engage with in their projects.