The extension of the district office in Starnberg, Upper Bavaria, has been awarded as the best building in Germany. The architects Auer Weber, who designed it, won the competition for the renowned DAM Prize 2023 in Frankfurt on Friday.
The original building from 1982 was “a mixture of Bavarian boathouse and traditional Japanese architecture,” is how Peter Cachola Schmal, director of the German Architecture Museum (DAM), described the building on the lake. The jurors found the harmony between the existing building and the extension particularly convincing: “Rarely do old and new buildings meet so harmoniously.” This is not least due to the fact that the same architects were at work 35 years apart – the original building was also designed by Fritz Auer and Carlo Weber, who received the German Architecture Prize for it in 1989. “Today it is only with a sharp eye to recognize where the existence ends and the expansion begins.”
“Don’t tear it down, don’t rebuild it, just continue building” is a contemporary but not everyday approach, said DAM director Cachola Schmal. “It would be nice if many builders would go this route.”
Outstanding buildings in Germany have been honored with the DAM Prize every year since 2007. In 2023, 23 buildings made it onto the longlist, and three buildings by German architects abroad were added out of competition. A jury of experts chaired by Martin Haas initially selected five finalists and, following an on-site inspection of the candidates, now chose the winner.
In addition to the Starnberg district office, the new urban railway tunnel in Karlsruhe, the federal office of the German Alpine Club in Munich, the Munich Volkstheater by the recently deceased architect Arno Lederer and the Prädikow barn near Berlin all made it into the final round. From January 28 to April 30, an exhibition will present the 26 award winners in the DAM’s alternative quarters at Ostbahnhof.