Third Bauhaus.SOLAR AWARD 2012 offered!

After the great success last year, the Europe wide next generation competition for the Bauhaus.SOLAR AWARD will also be announced in 2012. The prize will be awarded on 13th November 2012 as part of the 5th International Bauhaus.SOLAR Congress in Erfurt.

"Economically, the integration of regenerative energy generation in the design of buildings and urban structures will only have a successful future if it succeeds in impressing the next generation of architecture and design in using renewable energies and finding aesthetical solutions," explains Dr. Hubert Aulich, Chairman of SolarInput Association and Solarvalley Central Germany. "Here, the Bauhaus.SOLAR AWARD offers a public forum for the active collaboration in developing future-forward concepts in design, architecture, town planning and thus sets an important marker for European architecture," says Michael Frielinghaus, Chairman of the Jury and President of the Association of German Architects (BDA).

In 2012, the Bauhaus.SOLAR AWARD will be offered for the third time. The next generation prize is aimed at students at all European design and architecture courses and designers and architects who have finished their studies within the last two years. It recognises excellent architecture and design projects which show an innovative use of renewable energies while incorporating solar energy. The central interest of the competition is harmonising the design-based and functional demands on architecture, town planning, landscape planning and product design with the ecological and energetic requirements. Through interdisciplinary collaboration and experimental handling of materials and technical possibilities, new visionary ideas for resource saving technologies should be developed.

The prize offers the next generation the opportunity to present designs, projects and innovations to the public and companies. It can be an excellent springboard into the professional world and offers manifold opportunities for establishing contact with renowned experts. The Bauhaus.SOLAR AWARD is worth a total of €15,000 in prize money and is donated by SolarInput e.V., Solarvalley Mitteldeutschland e.V., from the German Solar Industry Association (BSW-Solar) as well as the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA).

In 2011, more than 40 participants from 8 countries entered the prize. The winner of the AWARD last year was María del Mar Gonzáles Dueñas from Granada (Spain) with her project “Sustainable Territorial Planning for the Campo Dalías Region“. In the region "Comarca del Campo de Dalías" regional reconstructions, the effects of human intervention and the intensive agriculture pursued have lead to a functional crisis situation. For this region, the sustainable strategy plan of the prize winner applies comprehensive, spatial planning considerationsgeared towards ecology and energy conservation. Besides Franziska Militz and Carina Steidele from the Technische Universität München received a special award for their "FACELIFT, Stuttgart Charlottenhochhaus Energy Renovation" project.

All further details, the specification documents and contact information for the competition 2012 can be downloaded from www.bauhaus-solar-award.de.