The 5th Alumi Award European Urban Studies honors two excellent Master theses. Six jury members appraised five theses that had been nominated for the award. Gordana Gocieva and Nina Gjorgon convinced the jury unanimously with their thesis ”Integrative Potential of the Fringe Belt as Heterotopic Enclave in the Fragmented City – Debar Maalo, Skopje, Case Study” and won the first prize, doted with 300 Euro. The thesis “Die Bedeutung der Leipzig Charta für integrierte Stadtentwicklung in Europa” by Eva Nickel has been awarded with the second prize, doted with 200 Euro. The jury’s decision was made public at the semester-opening party on the 13.10.2009 at the Institute for European Urban Studies.

First Prize
The thesis „Integrative Potential of Fringe Belt as Heteroptopic Enclave in the Fragmented City“ represents a morphological study of a heterogenous urban quarter in Macedonia’s capital Skopje. The goal of the thesis is to examine the problem of fragmentation in the modern city through the study case of the Debar Maalo neighbourhood.
As a critique on the changes of the identifiable compact form of a city, the authors ask, in how far urban design approaches can meet identifiable forms, programmes, histories and social patterns.
They do this in a very respectable scientific way, having chosen an adequate case of a fragmented city, being able to use this example to fulfil their research question and to meet the research problem in a multi-leveled way.
The forming of a hypothesis, derived from a careful theoretical discussion as a framework is well responded through field analysis, with a methodological approach that is also reliable to be transferred for research on other cities. Although the topic is a very specific one, eventually narrowing down to a smaller group of possible readers, the style and depth of writing, and the clear and traceable treatment of the topic, has the potential to make curious a wider circle of readers as the six jury members experienced with one voice. The sources are well and adequately chosen. The application of space syntax methods reaches to meet, on a well satisfying level, the theoretical framework of the case study and proves how morphology and theory can be widened to architectural references of the urban texture.

Second Prize
In her thesis “Die Bedeutung der Leipzig Chata für integrierte Stadtentwicklung in Europa”, Eva Nickel analyses the meaning and relevance of the Leipzig Charta that resulted from an informal meeting of European ministers in 2007. Through an array of interviews with high-ranked decision-makers in German planning politics, she reaches to help understand the meaning of the document within an important discourse apart formalised processes and a strong analysis of the involved urban actors.
The Leipzig Charta was created as a document at an informal memorandum between ministers in the field of urban development. It is giving a common ground for measures and strategies in urban revitalisation and urban rehabilitation of disadvantaged neighbourhoods with the goal of an “integrated urban development”, the “urban renaissance” and good governance. The document relies on the different historical, economical, social and ecological backgrounds of European country’s in the search of finding common goals of what could be particular for the heritage and the future of “the European City”.
The thesis achieves a very comprehensive insight into the topic and helps to understand informal processes as such. It is written in a clear language, but, as one jury member remarked as a critique, the author may even go too far, by even adapting to the European administrative language. As only few literature and sources can be found about the Charta as such, this thesis becomes itself a highly valuable contemporary document about a process just in time. As one jury member remarked, historic misinterpretations and misunderstandings that are well-known about the Charta of Athens, would possibly have been prevented, if reflective documents, like this thesis represents one, would had been created at that time of the Athens Charta.
Eva Nickel, in 2007, as part of her research, published, among other authors, a comparative project report about best practice examples from whole Europe for the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning.

Jury Statements: Philippe Schmidt, Head of jury

Jury
Dipl.-Wirtschafts-Ing., Dipl.-Ing. Christof Brandis Msc | Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Larissa Coles | Dipl.-Ing. Iris Engelmann | Dipl.-Ing. Sigrun Palinske MSc | Dr.-Ing. Steffen de Rudder | Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Philippe Schmidt M.Sc. |