Living in San Riemo

Since 2007, the German Museum of Architecture (DAM) in Frankfurt am Main has awarded the DAM Prize once a year to outstanding buildings in Germany. This year's winning project, a cooperative housing development in Munich designed by Arge Summacumfemmer Büro Juliane Greb, is impressive not only for its spatial system, but also for its approach to creating affordable yet outstanding residential buildings. This is the first project of the cooperative Kooperative Grossstadt, which was founded in Munich in 2015. The building, named "San Riemo" – a reference to the Riem district in which the building was erected – stems from a competition in which the realization decision was made in favor of the original second-place design for cost reasons.

The result includes a flexible floor plan matrix from which multi-layered spatial configurations can be derived. The architects specified three apartment types, referred to as basic, branch, and nucleus living. While basic living tends to conform to conventional apartment floor plans, branch living includes common areas. In nucleus living, on the other hand, the specific use can always be redefined, with each party entitled to an individually occupied nucleus. "San Riemo" offers a commercial space and a lobby on the ground floor, the latter of which can be used as a common area for residents. In addition, there is a common roof garden with raised beds. Externally, the building opens up to the urban space with winter gardens and a glass façade of movable French doors, and sets playful accents with turquoise façade surfaces. "San Riemo" also impressed jury member Peter Cachola Schmal, director of the German Architecture Museum: "Here we have an exciting solution to the residential construction problems that concern all of us. And it was initiated by private parties and implemented independently – it’s a true role model!"

The projects awarded the DAM Prize emerge from a longlist for which around 100 buildings from Germany are nominated by an advisory board of experts. Since 2017, these buildings, sorted geographically, have been presented annually in the Architekturführer Deutschland. Each year, the jury selects 22 designs for the shortlist, from which the finalists are chosen. For this year's DAM Prize 2022, these were the following projects:

John Cranko School, Stuttgart, Burger Rudacs Architects

Research Houses, Bad Aibling, Florian Nagler Architects

Axel Springer Campus, Berlin, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA)

Accompanying the DAM Prize 2022 is an exhibition that, due to renovation measures, will not be shown in the Deutsches Architekturmuseum at Schaumainkai, but in the DAM Interim Quarter "DAM Ostend" at Danziger Platz next to Frankfurt's Ostbahnhof. Until March 27, 2022, the museum will present plans, models and large-format photos on an area of 400 square meters, giving an overview of the nominated buildings of the DAM Prize 2022.

DAM Prize 2022 – The best buildings in/from Germany
January 29 - March 27, 2022
DAM Ostend, Henschelstrasse 18, 60314 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.