Trio of buildings in Berlin wins the KfW Award for Construction 2017

• The motto: "Enlarge, extend, convert – efficiently creating and modernising living space"
• Winners from Berlin, Leipzig, Stuttgart, Erfurt, Dorfen (Upper Bavaria)
• First international special award to mark the 15-year anniversary was granted to "EcoCasa" in Mexico

For the 15th time, KfW Group presented its annual KfW Award for Construction. Private developers and building associations who have, converted, modernised or regenerated a building in the last five years and thus created or modernised living space were invited to apply for the award. The projects were evaluated and honoured for achieving a successful balance between architecture and appearance, energy and cost efficiency, optimum use of room and space and individual homeliness. A jury headed up by Prof. Hans Kollhoff, an architect in Zurich/Berlin, awarded ten winners a prize fund totaling EUR 30,000. The winners converted old commercial or existing agricultural buildings, completely regenerated listed buildings or modernised existing residential buildings. Thanks to their excellent architecture, the projects in many cases allowed to both achieve the ambitious standards set by KfW competence houses and cleverly implement measures to break down barriers.

To mark the 15th anniversary of the KfW Award for Construction, KfW in 2017 for the first time granted the special prize "International KfW Award for Construction", honouring an international construction project that makes a contribution to global climate protection. The winner of the special prize was selected by a team of experts from KfW Development Bank. They granted the award to the "EcoCasa" project in Mexico. "EcoCasa" is a programme for energy-efficient and social housing construction set up by the Mexican government, which is inspired by the Efficiency House standard well-known in Germany. The energy-efficient buildings use at least 20 percent less power than conventional housing and are a showcase project for energy-efficient housing construction in emerging economies.

In the presence of Gunther Adler, State Secretary from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety, Dr Ingrid Hengster, Member of KfW's Executive Board, handed over the KfW Awards to the winners. "Combating climate change and meeting the demographic challenges with creative solutions are major global tasks of our time. For the past 15 years, KfW has been honouring energy-efficient, sustainable construction with its KfW Award for Construction and thereby draws attention to forward-looking trends in Germany. This year again, the award-winning properties bear testimony to this. The winners achieved an excellent balance between forward-looking architecture, harmonious integration into the surrounding environment and accessible living comfort. The international special prize goes to an outstanding example of creating energy-efficient and social housing in Mexico."

State Secretary Gunther Adler emphasised: "The solutions recognised with KfW Awards are impressive. They demonstrate how buildings can be extended or converted as needed. The award-winning developers could be an incentive for other investors to design energy-efficient, sustainable and flexible living spaces."

The gala awards ceremony for the KfW Award for Construction took place on 22 May 2017 at the Representative Office of Bertelsmann AG in Berlin. This year's awards are made up of ten prizes with a total prize fund of EUR 30,000.

The winners:

• First prize (of EUR 10,000):
  Ten families and couples joined forces to preserve and revive the Kaulsdorfer Kastanienhof farm and village ensemble in Berlin, combining all the important aspects of the KfW Award. The result was a trio of buildings that perfectly unites the old and the new, while also providng accessibility and energy efficiency.
• Second prize (EUR 6,000):
  A syndicate of 20 property owners successfully transformed a severely damaged traditional building complex in a fashionable area of Leipzig into spacious and inexpensive traditional flats and loft apartments with a special flair.
• Third prize (EUR 4,000):
  Daniel and Tina Seibert used a lot of imagination to convert a commercial building in a courtyard into a bright little home. Variable solutions allow the two flats to be expanded or downsized as required and thereby provide for independent living in an urban and individual atmosphere at the centre of Stuttgart.
• Fourth prize (EUR 3,000):
  A late medieval town house in Erfurt's old city is shining in renewed splendour thanks to developer Frank Orschler. The layers of the past were carefully revealed to create new homes with a historical feel and modern comfort.
• Fifth prize (EUR 2,000):
  An 80-year old building in Upper Bavaria of literary and architectural merit combines comfort and avant-garde. Following the restoration, the developers Karin and Urs Ickler and their four children can look forward to a stylish and spacious family home.

The five other winners praised for their projects (EUR 1,000 each):

• At home in the water tower:
  The architect and developer Matthias Beyer-Schubert transformed a water tower in Berlin dating back to 1875 into a five-storey residential building with a small garden.
• Protection of historical monuments and bio insulation:
  A monumental medieval building in Wismar, listed as a UNESCO world cultural heritage site, was carefully restored by builder Friedrich Däuble to house three modern flats.
• Living in a barn:
  A historical barn next to his parents' home, which had been standing empty for a while, is now home for builder Stefan Schiltz.
• Social care in a timbered house:
  Thanks to the work by Aktiv Stiftung, a century-old farmhouse in the Rhön Mountains gleams in renewed splendour and provides a new home to a sheltered community.
• Two become one:
  With as little interference as possible, Markus Plöcker and Simone Singer joined two halves of a semi-detached house from the 1930s, thereby adapting the house to contemporary needs.

The specialist jury headed up by Prof. Hans Kollhoff included city planners and energy experts, architects, and representatives of the construction and housing industry, the media and KfW. KfW promotes measures by private developers to improve energy efficiency and remove barriers in residential buildings on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy with its “Energy-efficient Construction and Refurbishment” programmes, as part of the CO2-Bulding rehabilitation programme and the Federal Government's energy efficiency incentive programme (APEE). With its “Age-appropriate Conversion” programme, KfW on behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety promotes measures to improve the accessibility of homes and to foster burglary protection. This helps developers who meet contemporary building requirements. Information on potential subsidies is available at www.kfw.de or on +49 (0)800 539 9002.

More information on the winners and press photos can be found at www.kfw.de/award. Media partners of the KfW Award for Construction 2017 are the news channel "n-tv" and the daily newspaper "Die Welt".