The prize, awarded for the first time by the Chamber, honors builders who cultivate their procedural culture, build in an integrated manner in terms of urban development, think sustainably and in an environmentally friendly manner in their building projects, preserve the building heritage and formulate building culture requirements - for the benefit of their city, municipality or community. Wolfgang Schneider, President of the Chamber of Architects, explained that Wolfsburg is an exemplary example of how to deal with building and the existing built substance that forms the basis of our cities.
Buildings by internationally important architects from different eras characterize Wolfsburg's cityscape, and the city promotes the communication of building culture in an exemplary manner with the Forum Architektur. Wolfsburg is one of very few cities to make use of the advantages of an advisory design council and announces an annual university competition. The "Day of Architecture" is an institution in Wolfsburg. The "Architektur macht Schule" program is being brought to life in many places in Wolfsburg, and there are a number of forward-looking new construction projects.
On July 1, 2001, the Forum Architektur of the City of Wolfsburg was founded as an institution for the communication of architecture and urban development. This makes it one of the oldest public building culture institutions, founded before the initiatives at state and federal level. Wolfsburg is considered a pioneer, because for the past 15 years building culture has had its own place in the city's cultural life alongside the classic departments of literature, music, art and history.
The small institution was born out of an increased need: requests for exhibition and research projects, university excursions and publications made it clear that the city's special architectural feature as a rare 20th-century city re-foundation with important individual buildings by Alvar Aalto, Hans Scharoun, Zaha Hadid and others is widely perceived and stimulates debate.
Since the beginning of 2006, the Forum Architektur has been organizationally located in the building department of the city of Wolfsburg and directly assigned to the city's building department. A working group on building culture links the work with the other departments: Structural Engineering, Urban Planning, Monument Preservation and Green. The work of the Design Advisory Council is also coordinated by the Architecture Forum. In this way, the building culture projects are not seen as an add-on, but are developed jointly from the tasks of the building administration. The 'Wolfsburg model' is regarded as a role model nationwide in this respect. In the Alvar Aalto House of Culture, the institution is centrally located with a shop window facing the town hall square.
On the one hand, it is a matter of consciously presenting Wolfsburg as a city of architecture with a tourist component and a wide range of building tours, architectural walks and urban tours. Equally important is the sensitization of the city's citizens to the special nature of Wolfsburg as a "functional city" of the 20th century with its new urban planning ideas and values. After all, the search for identity is still an issue in the young city.
"People are often only slightly aware of the great influence that built space has on their lives. If we succeed in getting them to be more aware of their surroundings and walk through the city with open eyes in the future, then we will go home satisfied," says Nicole Froberg, who set up the Forum Architektur from the beginning and still heads it today.
In 2004, the Design Advisory Board was founded at the request of the Council. This independent body of experts advises the Wolfsburg City Council, the Lord Mayor and the City Planning Director on matters of architecture and the cityscape at a professional level with the aim of guaranteeing and further developing Wolfsburg's architectural and urban development quality at a high level. The advisory board meets two to three times a year in closed session. It is involved in building projects that are significant for the cityscape due to their size, location and importance and makes expert recommendations as a basis for decision-making by the political bodies and the specialist administration. Behind this is the political claim to qualify the further development of the city by an external expert committee.
The design advisory board consists of five members who are appointed by the city planning commissioner. The members are four experts with special qualifications in the fields of architecture, urban planning, landscape planning and preservation of historical monuments and the respective incumbent city building councilor. The chairperson of the Planning and Building Committee and his/her deputy attend the meetings.
Composition of the Design Advisory Board:
- Mr. Kai-Uwe Hirschheide, head of the building department of the city of Wolfsburg
- Mrs. Ingrid Spengler (architecture)
- Mrs. Dr. Antje Backhaus (Landscape Planning)
- Mr. Manuel Scholl (urban planning)
- Mr. Prof. Dr. Georg Skalecki (preservation of historical monuments)
- Mr. Kai Kronschnabel (CDU), Chairman of the Planning and Building Committee
- Mr. Hans-Georg Bachmann (SPD), Deputy Chairman of the Planning and Building Committee