DAM Award for Architecture in Germany 2015
In 2015 the German Architecture Yearbook (Deutsche Architektur Jahrbuch) appeared for the 33rd time. For the ninth time the exhibition presented a selection of outstanding buildings in and from Germany carefully chosen by a jury. They stand for a wide variety of uses and reflect pressing and enduring projects, exotic and familiar tasks, the range including different types of housing, cultural facilities, and even a memorial. The debate on the validity of reconstruction was sparked again, as evidenced by the intensive discussions about the winner of the DAM Award for Architecture in Germany 2015: the New Masters’ Houses in Dessau by Berlin office Bruno Fioretti Marquez. Rather than a faithful reconstruction of the original, the architects opted for an “interpretive reconstruction” reproducing only the shells of the originally detached home of Walter Gropius and the semi-detached house occupied by Moholy-Nagy. Arguably there has never before been so much debate over the awarding of this prize, making the project all the more deserving a winner.