NRW.BANK Study Award Housing & City 2025
On 19.01.2026, outstanding works that dealt with the current challenges on the housing markets were awarded prizes at NRW.BANK in Düsseldorf. We are very pleased that two graduates of the Department of Spatial Planning were honored. Emelly Klassen took 2nd place and Leon Reckers 3rd place in the NRW.BANK Housing & City 2025 Study Award.
In her bachelor's thesis on "Housing cooperatives as a model against social trends of social loneliness using the case study of Spar- und Bauverein eG Dortmund", Emelly Klassen examined the structure of a cooperative in terms of its potential to overcome the challenges of combating social loneliness. Derived from the theoretical and empirical results from interviews with experts and a best-practice analysis, the research provides practical recommendations for action, as cooperatives offer significant potential to promote communities due to their organizational structure. The thesis was supervised by Felix Kutzera at the Urban Design Unit (SBP) and Lars Sievers at the Research Group of Urban and Regional Planning (SRP).
In his bachelor's thesis on the urban development scenario study for the Alte Lackfabrik Wülfing, Leon Reckers examined spatial development prospects for Wuppertal-Vohwinkel. Using a scenario technique, local, regional and global influencing factors were identified, evaluated and transferred into alternative future scenarios, with the results providing a sound basis for weighing up future decisions and contributing to the further development of methodological approaches in phase 0 of urban planning. The work was supervised by Päivi Kataikko-Grigoleit at the Urban Design Unit (SBP) and Thomas Eltner at the Research Group of Urban and Regional Planning (SRP).
First place was awarded to Montana Schulze (Master Urban Planning NRW, Hochschulverbund) for her work "Socially responsible development of existing buildings - transformation instead of displacement" and Theresa Stein (Master Architecture, RWTH Aachen) for "Age-appropriate housing in the transformed harbor area 'Dokken' in Bergen, Norway".
Congratulations on these great achievements!
Link: NRW.BANK Study Award 2025
Photo: NRW.BANK/Schmidt-Dominé