The Student House at TU Braunschweig (University of Braunschweig - Institute of Technology), is a two-storied, 1000 sqm intervention on the grand campus of the 280-year-old university. Awarded the 2024 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture / Mies van der Rohe Awards in the Architecture category, the building is conceptualised as a pavilion through the consolidation of flexible student workspaces, which facilitate interdisciplinary engagement between the six faculties of the university.

The new student pavilion, identified by its bold, white, steel superstructure and glazed curtain wall evokes an image that is reminiscent of the Crown Hall building—the nucleus of Mies’ masterplan for the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) campus. The design of this 20^th century student pavilion radicalised architectural education by creating a dynamic open-plan environment where students and faculty engage without the conventional constraints of a classroom architecture. Economically, a ‘less is more’ aesthetic, distinguished by industrial steel and glass, negotiated with material shortages as a result of the Second World War. Culturally, it revived a European identity by adopting the Eurocentric International style, which locates its influences primarily in the German Bauhaus and Dutch De Stijl schools of thought.

Recognising the evolving role of the university campus, architects Gustav Düsing and Max Hacke have developed an experimental campus typology that embraces a re-appropriated programme with contemporary teaching methods to foster flexibility, inclusivity and sustainability. Inducted in 2015 and eventually built in 2022, the building is the result of a collaborative competition entry by the Berlin-based architects. The resultant design features unobstructed, non-hierarchical, multi-functional spaces assembled together as a modular system of steel beams and wooden floors, which can be disassembled and reconfigured for a new programme as well as context.

The pavilion is located directly beside the Oker River and is integrated into the university campus via existing pathways, which connect it to the Audimax, the Technical Institute building and the Forum Square. Its location establishes the pavilion at the urban intersection of the river, the vast university campus and the city of Braunschweig.

On the ground floor, the space is organised as an open plan and grows around a centrally located service block, within a square grid of 3m x 3m composed of hollow steel profiles of 10cm x 10cm. The framed structure of columns and beams eliminates the need for internal walls, such that the internal spaces emerge in the form of zones.

This versatile disposition of the plan offers a variety of spatial identities, accommodating individual workstations, meeting rooms, conference rooms, lounges, and common areas, effectuating an environment that aims to rectify the conventional, uni-directional model of knowledge generation. A seemingly arbitrary distribution of informal as well as formal seating and workstations across the floor plan demonstrates a consistent and therefore egalitarian ecosystem, devoid of spatial hierarchies and gridlocked areas.

The floor plate of the first storey is a composition of ribbed wooden decks, which are inserted and bolted into the beam frames and as such, can be dismantled and reassembled to reprogram the spatial organisation. Breaking away from the planar grid of the ground floor, the configuration of the floor plate contrives two distinct volumes—the intimate, single-height zones and the double-height common areas.

On the first floor, the programmatic distribution is defined by an orthogonal network of staircases and aisle-sized hallways, interspersed with the enclosed volumes and voids. The system of staircases scattered across the floor plate serves as separate pathways for circulation within the various zones, enhancing the unique character of each zone and emphasising the specific activities associated with them.

The material palette of the building, composed of structural steel and timber and modular panels of the glass facade epitomises the pavilion typology by illustrating a light-weight and ephemeral structure. The selection of materials and construction techniques, guided by intentionality to reduce energy consumption and maximise recycling opportunities, leads to an innovative and sustainable solution, which involves reusing not just the building materials but also entire architectural elements such as facade panels, stairs and platforms. This strategy for circular construction is further enhanced by using renewable energy sources and ground probes for temperature regulation.

The Student House at TU Braunschweig, akin to its Miesian counterpart, aims to revolutionise modes of knowledge generation, with a space that transcends hierarchies and permanence. Additionally, its modularity and material palette are to climate change what Crown Hall was to post-war scarcity. Lastly, an aesthetic that is nostalgic of the International Style, restores an endangered European identity.