Herbert Eichholzer Award 2021

The central theme of this year’s Herbert Eichholzer Award was titled “Student Life in St. Leonhard” and challenged students from the Faculty of Architecture to design an ideal student habitat on the building site Leonhardsraße 61 in Graz, selected because of its central location between two universities.

The winning project by Sarah Höllisch and Magdalena Zoller stood out with its clear design that complements the student housing units with well-placed threshold-level spaces, thereby enabling a wide range of individual and communal functions. The ground floor serves as the main lounge area, in which there is a shop with a café and a publicly accessible garden, that can also be used for cultivation and events.

This year’s Recognition Award went to Stefanie Obermayer and Sebastian Stubenrauch, who in their project “Hommage Orange” referenced the former “Treppenturm” (stair tower) of the student dormitory on Hafnerriegel (Werkgruppe Graz). The room arrangement is flexible thanks to moveable sleeping boxes, thus responding to different living needs.

The prizes announced by the City of Graz and the Faculty of Architecture were awarded at a virtual award ceremony on November 24th, 2021, hosted by the Institute of Construction and Design Principles, represented by Petra Petersson and Lisa Obermayer, and City of Graz representative Günter Riegler. The Herbert Eichholzer Award, held every two years, symbolizes the unity of the City of Graz and the Graz University of Technology, with Herbert Eichholzer and his work as an important representative of modern architecture in the inter-war period and in his resistance to National Socialism. This year’s jury included Vanessa Bauer (Graz Department of Urban Planning), Alexander Lehnerer (Institute of Spatial Design), Petra Petersson (Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, KOEN), Antje Senarclens de Grancy (Institute of Architectural Theory, Art History and Cultural Studies) and Florian Summa (Integral Architecture).