German Design Award

Excellent Architecture – Award

The distinction with a “Special Mention” in the category “Excellent Architecture” of the German Design Award refers less to a single work than to a consistently pursued design attitude.

At the centre of Felix Schwake’s work is the question of how architecture, interior design, and functional art can be reduced to their essential qualities without losing spatial quality, atmosphere, or usability. Design is not understood as a decorative surface, but as a precise ordering of space, material, function, and perception.

The awarded works follow a deliberately restrained formal language. Simple geometries, clear proportions, and the integration of functions into calm monolithic bodies define the projects. Technology, use, and storage are not added as visible layers, but embedded within the overall structure. This creates spaces and objects that enable concentration and calmness rather than demanding constant attention.

The statement “architecture must serve as a background for life” does not describe a stylistic position, but a spatial attitude. Architecture has a lasting influence on perception and carries responsibility for the atmosphere in which people live, work, and think.

The German Design Award is considered an important international platform for architecture and design. Selection is made by an interdisciplinary jury from the fields of design, business, science, and education. The increasing international participation also demonstrates that questions of permanence, materiality, and conscious design are gaining global relevance.

The award confirms a way of working that consciously positions itself against short-lived stylistic trends and purely image-driven design. The focus is not on visual effects, but on the development of precise spatial situations in which material, use, and atmosphere come together as a calm and coherent design unity.