EAP36 Workshop: Knowledge City Heerlen
19 Oct 2026
From 15 to 18 October 2026, Heerlen hosted the third EAP workshop, titled Knowledge City Heerlen. Thirty-four architecture students from five universities across the Meuse-Rhine Euregio explored how knowledge, education, housing and culture could come together in Heerlen’s city centre. Working in international teams, they developed future scenarios for a largely vacant city-centre block.
Heerlen as a Knowledge City
Heerlen is undergoing a period of change. The former mining city is working towards a future in which education, innovation, culture and housing reinforce one another. A key question is how existing buildings and vacant spaces can take on a new purpose.
During the workshop, the students focused on a city block between SCHUNCK and New Regional Bauhaus, where Maastricht University may be based in the future. Their task was to develop architectural and urban design scenarios for the site, with a focus on the connections between knowledge, housing and culture.
Four days of design and exchange
The students worked in seven international teams, each bringing together students from the five participating universities. During the four-day workshop, they explored the site, developed ideas and worked on design proposals for both the short and long term.
The programme included site visits, design sessions, presentations and talks by guest speakers Marco Broekman (BURA) and Hanna Potulski (Architektenkammer NRW). In addition to giving a lecture during the first two days, Marco Broekman served as our guest curator. His research also helped form the basis for the workshop. On the final day, the teams presented their proposals and discussed the results with the tutors involved.
Students and tutors from the five EAP partner universities took part: AAM Maastricht, RWTH Aachen, FH Aachen, UHasselt and ULiège. The workshop was organised by SCHUNCK and New Regional Bauhaus/RWTH Aachen.
With Knowledge City Heerlen, SCHUNCK and its partner universities continue the educational workshop programme of the Euregional Architecture Prize (EAP). The programme gives emerging architects the opportunity to explore current spatial challenges in the Euregio and develop new ideas.
This plan shows how the groups divided the work. Each group developed one section of the 1:100 scale model. Together, the seven sections form a cadavre exquis.
Workshop outcomes
During the workshop, each of the seven teams developed a design proposal for the city-centre block in Heerlen. They explored how the site could evolve in the short and long term, with future scenarios for 2030 and 2040.
The results include models, drawings, sketches and documentation of the design process. You can view the work of all seven teams below.
Group 1
Layth Winter
Kiana Jaberi
Camille Pirois
Lena Hörsch
Daan Lauwers
Group 2
Diana Skácelová
Alina Albrecht
Maxime Mori
Leoni Chong
Ninke Pelgrims
Group 3
Janna Siroo
Jule Drees
Samy Ngoy Katumba
Anna Banchevsky
Siebe Heylen
Group 4
Nathalia Aljandra Crosby Combita
Fynn Rüdiger
Lucas Davini
Louise Desojez
Evi Reyns
Group 5
Giorgio Bubalo
Tim Christ
Lucien Ramirez
Annik Schülter
Elyne Müller
Group 6
Emmanuel Diebe Yadiaya
Adrian Bistrovic-Feriz
Sébastian Baleiron
Andrejs Dorogojs
Ivana Dropková
Group 7
Otilia Pruteanu
Thierno Kaba
Etienne Feinhals
Lukas Geffens
About the Euregional Architecture Prize
The Euregional Architecture Prize (EAP) is an annual architecture award for graduation projects by students from the Meuse-Rhine Euregio. The prize gives emerging architects a platform to present their ideas and designs and encourages exchange between the five participating institutions.
The workshop is part of the EAP’s accompanying programme and is being organised for the third time this year. Students from the same five institutions work together on current architectural and urban design challenges.
Parts of this workshop were made possible with support from the Action Agenda for Spatial Design 2026–2028 (ARO) and the Foundation for the Coordination of Local Architecture Initiatives (CoLA).