The Home of Shadows #4 competition Student Award winners - MSA, Münster School of Architecture

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to the Student Award winners of our The Home of Shadows #4 competition – Claudio Schröder, Chengying Wang, Fabian Leo Bous and Miao Kang from Germany!

Honorable mention winners from Germany

Please tell us about your company (when it was founded, where it is based, how many employees, etc) Alternatively, if you do not have a company, please give us some insights on your own professional/academia background.

We're a team of two Bachelor and two Master students living and currently studying in Münster and Karlsruhe, Germany.

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance, what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where the company/ individuals have been Involved?

Our interests as students within our group are vastly different and range from social and cultural impact projects to technological research and robotics.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

Architecture is, put simply, the art of building well and meaningful and intentional, just like pottery is the art of making good and beloved vessels. It is important that things - especially the buildings that surround us everywhere and every day - keep being well made. Because something that is well made is beautiful and able to enhance our daily experiences.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

We participate in competitions because we want to challenge ourselves to work independently outside of university and develop a concept entirely independent from professors and their opinions.
We can freely choose a topic of current interest and express our individual values through architectural design.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture competitions?

If you think about it, there really is nothing to lose. Time will never be wasted, because there is always a lot of progress and learning. Failure is the best teacher, and we should strive to fail more and learn. The experience of working independently and for yourself is different from university and very valuable and rewarding.