NÜRTINGEN. (hfwu).  It's a reason to pop the corks: students at Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Applied Sciences (HGU) win the 2022 Peter Joseph Linné Prize, the world's  most prestigious international award and competition for young landscape architects.

Eva Wagner, Pauline Kopp, Robin Schiedt and Roman Müller are all studying landscape architecture at HNU. During the sixth semester, the subject "complex design" is on the curriculum. They used the task of the competition as a project in their course. The participants were asked to design green spaces and public spaces as a stage for the 2025 Capital of Culture event in Chemnitz Germany.

The challenge was to link open spaces from different eras and to correct urban planning deficiencies. In the end, it was also a matter of drawing the population's attention to the Capital of Culture through temporary or permanent interventions.

The students solved this task with great success: "Professionals up to the age of 35 are allowed to participate in the competition. It is very unusual for undergraduate students to win." The students' supervisors, Annegret Stöcker and Professor Rainer Sachse, are not only pleased about this success. "We have now been successful with our Bachelor's program in an international competition for the third time in just a few years. To my knowledge, hardly any other university has managed this so far," says Sachse.

The Peter Joseph Lenné Award of the State of Berlin is endowed with 5,000 euros. The students received their prizes during a stylish event at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. State Secretary for the Environment Dr. Silke Karcher presented the awards.