Gustav Düsing and FAKT have just won the competition to design an adaptive reuse project in Siegen, Germany. Following Gustav Düsing’s recent win of the EU Mies Award 2024, the NAS project was developed through a comprehensive participatory process involving students, faculty, staff, and community members. The New Architecture School (NAS) is an adaptive reuse proposal transforming the former printing facility into a new type of central campus. Aspiring to act as a dynamic urban entity, the design combines academic pursuits with cultural and public spaces.
The organizational principle behind NAS seeks to integrate the school with the surrounding neighborhood, the city, and the wider region. The building boasts an Architecture Museum on the ground floor, extending into the nearby city center. Additionally, the scheme entails expansive studio spaces featuring an open area on the top floor. Envisioned as a venue for daily student activities, public lectures, and large cultural events, the project spans approximately 7,000 square meters and hopes to become a hub for the Architecture Facility at the University of Siegen.
The project involves converting and extending an existing 1970s modular concrete printing facility, using a lightweight strategy developed in collaboration with schlaich bergermann partner. The strategy combines mass timber interiors with a modular steel-timber hybrid structure featuring a hanging timber roof on the top floor. In line with the “light touch” strategy, the climate concept emphasizes low-tech solutions. In fact, it incorporates unheated spaces that serve dual purposes: providing additional areas for students and acting as climatic buffer zones.
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MASSLAB Transforms Bragança Water Treatment Plant into Dynamic Public Space in PortugalWith a focus on transforming the immediate surroundings and integrating this existing building into the city’s urban fabric, the scheme removes an extensive car park and focuses on the renaturalization of the adjacent river. Additionally, the plan also features the creation of a new public square that offers natural access to the river, enhancing the site’s ecological and functional appeal.
Gustav Düsing, in collaboration with Max Hacke, recently won the prize for the 2024 Architecture EU Mies Award. The studio’s “Study Pavilion” was also a campus designed to cater to the evolving academic landscape after COVID-19. Reimagining the traditional role of the university, the winning design “challenges the constraints, creating a welcoming and playful environment for study, collaboration, and community gathering.” In other similar news, GRAFT Architects has just won the competition to design the new Carl Bechstein Music Campus in Berlin. Finally, Brooklyn-based firm SO-IL recently revealed the design for a new campus art museum at Williams College in Massachusetts, United States.
