Fritz Bauer Forum, Bochum
Credits
Company / Customer
Year
2026
Location
Bochum (DE)
Disciplines
Architecture
Category
Education
Award
Best of Best
Details
With the Fritz Bauer Forum, a former nursery and funeral hall were transformed into an open centre for democracy, education, and community. Existing architecture was carefully adapted and reinterpreted through clear spatial structures, sustainable materials, and light-filled interiors. The ensemble combines heritage preservation, social responsibility, and forward-looking architecture to create a vibrant place for exchange and encounter.
The Jury‘s Statement
From a former cemetery plant nursery in need of renovation, complete with a listed funeral hall, to an open centre for democracy, education, and community: following a careful refurbishment of the existing architecture, it is primarily the repurposing of the building that makes this project so significant today. The rough, exposed-concrete facade with its sharply jagged silhouette sits almost defiantly atop the virtually concealed glass plinth. The new Fritz Bauer Forum thus sets an example not only with its outer shell, but also with its brutalist architectural style, which is something of a rarity in this region. Alongside a spacious library at the heart of the building, there is much more going on inside: a dignified place for people to come together.
