Wolfsburg Award for urban vision 2022

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Wolfsburg is one of the very few newly founded cities of the 20th Century in Europe. In a unique way, its city planning has been tied to the political, social and economic trends and upheavals of the past eight decades. The growth has run parallel to the emergence of the Volkswagen factory from individual auto production facilities into a globally active company. The time between 1951 in 1972, meaning the epoch of postwar modernism, is viewed as its most exciting time period from an architectural standpoint. Other attractions are outstanding individual examples of architecture that architects such as Alvar Aalto, Hans Scharoun und Zaha Hadid realized in Wolfsburg and that must be respectively understood as the impetus for new areas of city development.
The WOLFSBURG AWARD is intended to help further strengthen the architectural-cultural dynamism of Wolfsburg as a model city. About fifty years after the high point of postwar-modernism, many individual buildings and residential districts are facing modernization. The principles of a modern city suited to the automobile are being increasingly called into question. New urban developments will be generated, especially in housing. From 119.000 inhabitants in the year 2007 an increase in population up to over 130.000 in the year 2025 is expected. At the moment the city has approximately 125.000 inhabitants.