The graduate Michelle Wanitzek from the Master's programme Interior Design of the Faculty of Architecture and Design at Hochschule Wismar, University of Applied Sciences, convinced both the national and international expert jury with her submitted Master's thesis "Nomad Coworking - Conversion of a listed building into a Co-Working Café" from the summer semester 2022. Wanitzek thus emerges as the winner of the Vectorworks Scholarship 2022 for Germany and Austria in the category "Interior Design" and additionally as the winner of the Richard Diehl Award on an international level. Her Master's thesis was supervised by Prof. Oliver Hantke and Prof. Achim Hack.
The master's thesis deals with the development of a coworking space including a café in a listed building in the old town of the Hanseatic city of Wismar. In her design, for example, Wanitzek shows solutions for dealing with the protected existing building, the low floor heights and new structures for the supporting framework. "The complete gutting and implementation of a new inner supporting structure and roof creates a place for working and living together. The fixtures are restrained, the materials speak a language that is clearly oriented towards the existing building," writes Prof. Oliver Hantke.
The jury of experts selected the best four designs in the categories architecture, landscape architecture, interior design and entertainment from more than 400 submissions. For the sixth time, ComputerWorks and Vectorworks, Inc. awarded the Vektorworks Scholarship to promote young talent in design courses and training at universities and schools.
Each category is endowed with prize money of 2,500 euros. By winning the scholarship, the winners qualify for the international Richard Diehl Award, which is endowed with an additional 7,000 US dollars.
Michelle Wanitzek won both prizes in 2022. The organiser published this news on Friday, 9th December 2022. A presentation of the certificate and trophy is planned for early 2023. Currently, Wanitzek works in an architectural office in Lübeck.