Ten projects have made it to the final selection for the German Sustainability Award for Architecture. Among the nominees, the jury selected five refurbishment and five new-build projects, which together represent a wide variety of different construction tasks. This year marks the 13th time that the prize has been awarded jointly by the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB e.V.) and the German Sustainability Award Foundation (Stiftung Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis e.V.). This year, the winners will be announced for the first time at a separate event: the Sustainable Architecture Forum, which will celebrate its premiere on November 27, 2025 at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn.

"Once again this year, the jury is impressed by how diverse, multifaceted and consistent the implementation of sustainability issues in architecture can be," says DGNB President and jury chairman Prof. Amandus Samsøe Sattler. "The projects nominated for the German Sustainability Award show how sustainability can be achieved in everyday architecture for a wide variety of usage and building typologies through convincing design. Not as an add-on, but as a natural part of the architectural quality. This creates a building culture that is as visible and tangible as it is sustainable." Half of the nominated projects can be located in the important task of building in existing buildings. For example, the listed former production hall of the Eggenfabrik in Munich was converted into a year-round, inclusive action sports center in the course of a resource-saving renovation. The careful general refurbishment of the exhibition building on the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt, which is also a listed building, has made a historically valuable structure fit for the future with the help of an integrative planning process. In the Swabian town of Ingerkingen, the renovation and extension of the multi-purpose hall, which is important for the village community, is a functional, sustainable and socially anchored project.

In the student city of Munich, the general refurbishment of the Sophie-Scholl-Haus shows how the post-war modernist building fabric can be combined with a sustainable and contemporary living concept for students. And in Regensburg, the energy-efficient refurbishment and extension of a high-rise residential building from the 1960s was combined with the upgrading of the entire neighborhood in a well thought-out overall concept. The nominated new construction projects are dominated by wood as a material and the principle of the circular economy. The Holzbau Schmäh campus in Meersburg on Lake Constance demonstrates how ecologically, socially and creatively sophisticated commercial construction can succeed in rural areas. In Wendlingen am Neckar, the "(Park)haus der Zukunft" is a timber multi-storey parking lot that incorporates both future-oriented mobility concepts and flexible usage options for the future. The expansion of the Karl Schubert School in Leipzig to include a multi-purpose hall and a specialist room building has created flexible spaces for learning, teaching and socializing that go beyond the school day.

The Suffizienzhaus U10 project in Kassel, initiated by a building community, shows how resource-saving construction with reused materials and a flexible floor plan design can create affordable living space. With his project "Our garden house - house without cement", architect Prof. Florian Nagler extends the space of the existing front building for living and working and continues his research approach of simple construction with sustainable building methods, energy-efficient materials and space-efficient room layouts. The submitted projects were assessed by a jury of experts appointed by the DGNB and the German Sustainability Award Foundation. In addition to the nominees, the experts from the fields of architecture, construction and society also determine the finalists and the winning project.

This year's members included Wiebke Ahues (LXSY Architektur Berlin), Martin Haas (haascookzemmrich STUDIO2050 Stuttgart), Vera Hartmann (sauerbruch hutton Berlin), Prof. Thorsten Helbig (Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, knippershelbig Stuttgart), Prof. Dr. Maren Kohaus (Rosenheim University of Applied Sciences, sustainable architecture GmbH), Markus Lehrmann (North Rhine-Westphalia Chamber of Architects), Reiner Nagel (Bundesstiftung Baukultur), Gabriele Pfründer (Gebäudemanagement Schleswig-Holstein AöR), Elise Pischetsrieder (weberbrunner architekten Berlin), Prof. Matthias Rudolph (Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart, Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH) and Prof. Amandus Samsøe Sattler (ensømble Studio Architektur Berlin). The winners will be announced for the first time as part of the new Sustainable Architecture Forum event format. This will take place on November 27, 2025 at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn and will be jointly organized by the DGNB and the Chamber of Architects of North Rhine-Westphalia. The German Sustainability Award for Architecture will be presented at the end of the event. Further information and the link to free registration can be found at www.forum-nachhaltige-architektur.de. In addition, the finalists and the winning project will be presented as usual during the evening award ceremony of the German Sustainability Award. The evening gala will conclude the congress for the 18th German Sustainability Award, which will take place in Düsseldorf on December 4 and 5, 2025.

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