The German Natural Stone Award 2009 will be presented to consultant architects WEINMILLER ARCHITEKTEN of Berlin and kister scheithauer gross architekten und stadtplaner of Cologne. The German stone association, the Deutsche Naturstein-Verband (DNV), presents the award every two years in cooperation with the Bund Deutscher Architekten (BDA) for innovative, high-quality and user-orientated projects using natural stone indoors and outdoors. The award is sponsored by NurnbergMesse as organizer of Stone+tec. This year's architecture award, which is worth altogether 30,000 euros and attracted almost 70 entries, went to demanding building concepts that represent exemplary architectural quality, energy optimization and cost-effective design. The award paid tribute to outstanding planning achievements with aesthetically demanding, innovative and ecological solutions. The new building designed for the L-Bank Landeskreditbank Baden-Wrttemberg in Karlsruhe by WEINMILLER ARCHITEKTEN of Berlin is a new urban unit which convincingly harmonizes with the baroque, fan-shaped city layout with its eight blocks pointing to the palace. The appearance of the building itself is decisively characterized by the quality of the natural stone used, a beige limestone solidly built in the style and size of Roman brickwork. The choice of the stone size intelligently cites the brick facings of the neighbouring buildings and interprets them anew through the unusual use of the natural stone. The well-balanced and finely proportioned relationship between the solid wall surfaces and openings cut into them results in a noble building, which convincingly traces back building with stone to its original qualities and enriches the Karlsruhe Schlossplatz with a piece of timeless architecture.

The new building designed for the city archive in Halle/Saale by kister scheithauer gross architekten und stadtplaner of Cologne is an architecturally convincing solution using independent material that answers the question of supplementing a historical building. As a direct inversion of the material used for the old building, the archive tower presents a tall natural stone block of shell limestone in which vertical openings have been cut and filled with bricks of the same colour as the old building as wall design. The play with natural stone and bricks and the implementation in the solid wall design creates the special poetry of this ensemble.

Special merits went to Gnter Hermann Architekten, Stuttgart, for the headquarters of the German Federal Bank, Berlin; waechter + waechter architekten bda, Darmstadt, for the conversion of the plenary hall building of the Hessian State Parliament, Wiesbaden; and Hilmer & Sattler und Albrecht Gesellschaft von Architekten mbH, Berlin, for Block B of the Lenbach Grten and The Charles Hotel, Munich. The jury chaired by BDA President Michael Frielinghaus of Friedberg also awarded six highly commendeds: Stefan Bernard, Norbert Mggenburg, Philipp Sattler, Berlin, for the Bonifatiuspark, Frankfurt am Main; B&V Braun Volleth Architekten GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, for the Kronprinzbau Stuttgart; Diethelm & Spillmann, Architects, Zurich, for the conversion and extension of the Franz Marc Museum, Kochel am See; and ARGE Ortner & Ortner / Kramm & Strigl, Berlin and Wiesbaden, for the Lilien-Carr, Wiesbaden; VAN DEN VALENTYN ARCHITEKTUR, Cologne, for an office and administration building, Konrad-Adenauer-Ufer, Cologne; Petra and Paul Kahlfeldt, Berlin, for a house in Heidelberg.