European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award 2009

The Prize is a joint initiative of the European Commission and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe.
The Prize as well as the Emerging Architect Special Mention are awarded biennially to works completed within the previous two years, produced in countries covered by the Culture 2000 programme*. The principal objectives are to recognise and commend excellence in the field of architecture and to draw attention to the important contribution of European professionals in the development of new ideas and technologies.
In this way, the Prize offers both individuals and public institutions an opportunity to reach a clearer understanding of the cultural role of architecture in the construction of our cities.
Furthermore, the Prize sets out to foster architecture in two significant ways: by stimulating greater circulation of professional architects throughout the entire European Union and by supporting young architects as they set off on their careers.
Candidates for the Prize are put forward by a broad group of independent experts from all over Europe, as well as from the architects’ associations that form part of the Architects’ Council of Europe (ACE) and other European national architects’ associations. At each biennial edition, the Jury selects two works: one that receives the Prize and the other the Special Mention both in recognition of their conceptual, technical and constructional qualities. The Jury also selects a set of shortlisted works to be included in both the Prize catalogue and exhibition.
The Prize consists of a cash prize of 60,000 €, while the Special Mention is endowed with 20,000 €. Along with the cash prizes, the winners will also be awarded a sculpture designed by the Catalan artist Xavier Corberó inspired by the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, symbol of the Prize and one of the 20th century’s major architectural works.
*The countries covered by the Culture 2000 programme are the states of the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom; in addition the EEA countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway; and the EU candidate countries: Croatia, Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Turkey plus Serbia.

History
The idea for a prize for European architecture was proposed to the European Parliament by MP Xavier Rubert de Ventós. On April 28, 1987 an agreement was signed between European Commissioner Carlo Ripa di Meana and Barcelona Mayor Pasqual Maragall to launch the ‘Mies van der Rohe Award of the European Communities’, and the first edition was carried out in 1988.
In 2000 the Fundació Mies van der Rohe submitted the model of the Mies van der Rohe Award in response to the call for proposals by the European Commission for the ‘European Union Prize for¿ Contemporary Architecture’. The most significant modification was the addition of the Emerging Architect Special Mention that recognises gifted young professionals. Upon acceptance, the Mies van der Rohe Award became the official architecture prize of the EU and since then, four editions have been carried out (in 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007).
Throughout these 21 years the basic objectives and organisational procedures that were established in 1987 have remained the same. From the beginning, the Prize has been a collective project that benefits from the collaboration of the Advisory Committee, the ACE member architects’ associations and the other national architects’ associations, independent experts, jury members and the architects whose works are proposed every two years.
One of the most important aspects is that in addition to the works to be granted – the Prize and the Special Mention – the Jury makes a selection of works to be published in a catalogue and included in a travelling exhibition. This has resulted in a series of publications that have mapped the evolution of European architecture over the last 20 years and have provided an important archive of documentation that includes photographs, original drawings, digital material and models.
Also, the Prize emphasises what European architecture has to offer to the rest of the world. The works proposed are not limited by scale or programme. The selection of the Jury for each edition has included private houses, public housing, museums and cultural installations, sports facilities and large-scale urban and infrastructure projects with the common denominator being the contribution that these works make to the construction of the city.

Calendar for the 11th edition
December 2008: The list of all works nominated for the Prize is made public.
February 2009: First meeting of the Jury will be held in Barcelona. They will select the finalists and the shortlisted works that will appear in the catalogue and the exhibition.
April 2009: Conferences in the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion given by the five architects selected as finalists.
The Jury will visit the five project finalists and will convene for the last time to decide on the winners of the Prize and Special Mention.
May 2009: Press conference in the city where the Prize Winning work is located (if possible in the building itself).
The granting ceremony will be held a few days later in Barcelona at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion.

Jury Members

Francis Rambert, Chair
Director, Institut français d’architecture, Paris
Francis Rambert is the director of Institut français d’architecture (Ifa), at the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine in Paris. From 1990 to 2004, he wrote for the culture section of Le Figaro and he was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of D’Architectures magazine. He has published numerous articles on architecture and design in the specialised media and he is the author of various books, such as a monograph about Massimiliano Fuksas for Editions du Regard (1997). He has also been the curator of exhibitions such as Bouge l’Architecture! (Paris, 2002), and the architectural biennials in Buenos Aires (1998 and 2001), Rotterdam (2003) and Venice (2008).

Ole Bouman
Director, Nederlands Architectuurinstituut, Rotterdam
Ole Bouman is the director of the Nederlands Architecturinstituut (NAi) in Rotterdam. Prior to this he was the editor-in-chief of the magazine Volume as well as the director of the Archis Foundation. A cultural and architectural historian, he is active as a writer, curator and teacher.
His publications include the encyclopedic manifesto The Invisible in Architecture (co-author, 1994) as well as The Battle for Time (2003). He has been the curator of numerous exhibitions including RealSpace in QuickTimes for the Triennale di Milano (1996), Egotecture for the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam and Manifesta 3, Ljubljana (2000). He has taught and lectured at a number of international universities and currently he is a lecturer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.

Fulvio Irace
Director of Architecture and Design Department, Triennale di Milano
Fulvio Irace is responsible for the Architecture and Design department at the Triennale di Milano and he is professor of the History of Contemporary Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of the Politecnico di Milano. He has been curator of several exhibitions on Italian architecture between the two world wars and is the author of various books such as Driadebook: 25 Years on the Drawing Board (1995) and Emilio Ambasz: A Technological Arcadia (2005). He has contributed to numerous architectural magazines including The Architectural Review, Lotus and Ottagano and was the editor of Domus from 1980 – 86. In addition to being the architecture critic of the Il Sole 24 ORE Domenica, since 2008 he is the editorial director of the section on architectural books and magazine of Il Sole 24 ORE Business Media.

Carme Pinós
Architect, Barcelona
Carme Pinós graduated from the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona and she is professor at numerous universities worldwide. Her early work includes: Igualada Cemetery, the Archery Range for the Barcelona Olympics and the La Llauna School (in collaboration with former partner Enric Miralles). In 1991 she set up her own practice, which has completed the Ses Estacions Park and Espanya Square, Palma de Mallorca and the Cube Tower, Guadalajara, Mexico. Currently her studio is working on: the Novoli housing complex, Florence, the Catalan Government Headquarters, Tortosa, and the design of the Gardunya Square in Barcelona, as well as a housing block and the Massana Fine Arts School adjacent to the square. In 2008, she was awarded the National Prize for Architecture and Public Space.

Luis M. Mansilla
Architect, Madrid, Winner of the European Union Prize for Contemporary Achitecture – Mies van der Rohe Award 2007 for the MUSAC, León, Spain
Luis M. Mansilla graduated from the ETSAM in 1982, and earned a Ph. D at the ETSAM in 1998 (UPM Extraordinary Award). In 1984 he held a residency grant at the Spanish Fine Arts Academy in Rome, and in 1987 he was awarded the Swedish Institute and European Council Scholarship, with which he carried out investigation at the Arkitekturmuseet in Stockholm. In 1992, Emilio Tuñón and Luis M. Mansilla established the architecture firm Mansilla+Tuñón Arquitectos. While their work have been focused on the confrontation and academic practise at the same time their studio has produced numerous constructed works including Pedro Barrié de la Maza Foundation in Vigo (2005), the Auditorium of León (2003), Archeological and Fine Arts Provincial Museum of Zamora (1996) and MUSAC the Museum of Contemporary Art in Castilla y León (2004). Mansilla+Tuñón Arquitectos are also the publishers of the specialized magazine CIRCO.

Vasa J. Perović
Architect, Ljubljana, Emerging Architect Special Mention 2007 for the Faculty of Mathematics, Ljubljana
Vasa J. Perović graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade in 1992. He founded his architecture office in 1997, which he currently runs with Matija Bevk. Their major works include the Congress Centre Brdo, in Krani, House HB and House D, both built in Ljubljana. In 2007 they were awarded the Plečnik Prize for Architecture for the Student Housing Poljane, Ljubljana, and that same year they won the Emerging Architect Special Mention in the 2007 edition of the Prize for the Faculty of Mathematics, Ljubljana. Since 2002 their work has been shown in several countries. In 2004 Bevk Perović Architekti were selected to participate at the exhibition Young Generation of Slovenian Architects at the gallery of the Royal Institute of Architects in Dublin and in 2006 they participated in the Wonderland exhibition at the Architekturzentrum Wien in Vienna.

Irena Fialová
Architect, Prague
Irena Fialová graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague. Currently she teaches at this Faculty of Architecture and the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. In 1992 she co-founded Zlatý ez, a publishing company and architectural magazine, where she is partner and executive editor. She has specialised in urban design, and has worked for the Strategic Planning Department of the City of Prague. She has lectured on Czech contemporary architecture in numerous cities including Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Piran and Vienna. She has translated into Czech (together with Jana Tichá) Ignasi de Solà Morales Differences, Topographies of Contemporary Architecture (ČKA Praha 1998), and is author and editor of the books Zlatý Andel, Jean Nouvel in Prague in 2000; Tancící dum / Dancing Building, Frank Gehry Vlado Milunic in 2003 and The Guide on Contemporary Prague Architecture in 2007.

Lluís Hortet, Secretary of the Jury
Director of the Fundació Mies van der Rohe
Diane Gray
Coordinator of the Prize, Fundació Mies van der Rohe

Advisory Committee
The Advisory Committee, formed by 17 of the most prestigious architectural institutions throughout Europe, collaborates with the Fundació Mies van der Rohe in the carrying out of the award process.
Arc en rêve centre d’architecture, Bordeaux
Architecture Foundation, London
Architekturzentrum Wien, Vienna
Arkitekturmuseet, Stockholm
Berlage Institute, Rotterdam
With the support of the Culture 2000
programme of the European Union
CIVA, Brussels
Dansk Arkitektur Center, Copenhagen
DESSA, Ljubljana
Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt
Eesti Arhitektuurimuuseum, Tallinn
EUROPAN, Paris
Institut français d’architecture, Paris
Nasjonalmuseet for Kunst, Arkitektur og Design, Oslo
Nederlands Architectuurinstituut, Rotterdam
RIBA Trust, London
Suomen Rakennustaiteen Museo, Helsinki
Triennale di Milano, Milan
Steering Committee
The Steering Committee is composed of a group of seven Advisory Committee members who work closely with the Fundació Mies van der Rohe as co-organisers of the Prize.
Architekturzentrum Wien, Vienna
Dansk Arkitektur Center, Copenhagen
Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt
Institut français d’architecture, Paris
Nederlands Architectuurinstituut, Rotterdam
RIBA Trust, London
Triennale di Milano, Milan

Previous Winners
Winner of the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award
2007 MUSAC – Contemporary Art Museum of Castilla y León, León, Spain
Mansilla + Tuñón
2005 Netherlands Embassy Berlin, Germany
Office for Metropolitan Architecture / Rem Koolhaas, Ellen van Loon
2003 Car Park and Terminus Hoenheim North, Strasbourg, France
Zaha Hadid
2001 Kursaal Centre, San Sebastián, Spain
Rafael Moneo

Emerging Architect Special Mention
2007 Faculty of Mathematics, Ljubljana, Slovenia
bevk perović arhitekti / Matija Bevk, Vasa J. Perović
2005 BasketBar, Utrecht, The Netherlands
NL Architects / Pieter Bannenberg, Walter van Dijk, Kamiel Klaasse, Mark Linnemann
2003 Scharnhauser Park Town Hall, Ostfildern, Germany
Jürgen Mayer H.
2001 Kaufmann Holz Distribution Centre, Bobingen, Germany
Florian Nagler

Winners of the Mies van der Rohe Award for European Architecture:
1999 Bregenz Art Museum, Bregenz, Austria
Peter Zumthor
1997 Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, France
Dominique Perrault
1994 Waterloo International Terminal, London, United Kingdom
Nicholas Grimshaw / Nicholas Grimshaw & Associates
1992 Municipal Sports Stadium, Badalona, Spain
Esteve Bonell, Francesc Rius
1990 Stansted Airport Terminal, London, United Kingdom
Norman Foster / Norman Foster & Associates
1988 Banco Borges e Irmão, Vila do Conde, Portugal
Álvaro Siza Vieira

Exhibition and Catalogue
The Fundació Mies van der Rohe is organizing a travelling exhibition that will be presented in diverse museums and institutions. The contents of this exhibition include texts that explain the Prize and its objectives; drawings and photographs of each work presented (the works awarded the Prize and the Special Mention as well as the shortlist selection of the Jury); and models. The approach of this exhibition is that it be highly didactic and provide ample information for architectural professionals and students as well as the general public. A catalogue will also be published that includes extensive documentation about all the works selected by the Jury along with articles by the members of the Jury and institutional presentations. This catalogue as well as the travelling exhibition represents an important and unique panorama of the development of contemporary European architecture by serving as an anthology of some of the best work produced during 2007 and 2008.

The Mies van der Rohe Pavilion and Fundació Mies van der Rohe
The Pavilion was built for the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition and disassembled the following year. Half a century later, and in view of the importance of the Pavilion in terms of contemporary architectural history, the Barcelona City Council, with architect Oriol Bohigas at the head of its Urban Planning Department, decided to faithfully reconstruct the building. The project was carried out after extensive research by Ignasi de Solà-Morales, Cristian Cirici and Fernando Ramos between 1983 and 1986 on the Pavilion’s original Montjuïc site.
The Fundació Mies van der Rohe was set up in 1983 with the aim of working towards the reconstruction of the Pavilion. Since the completion of the project, the Foundation, member of the International Confederation of Architectural Museums (ICAM), has been entrusted with the task of preserving and managing the pavilion.
The Foundation also focuses on fostering debate on contemporary architecture and urbanism, building a documentary archive on Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and on modern and contemporary architecture, and organising correlated awards, courses, lectures, exhibitions, publications and studies.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886 – 1969)
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was born in Aachen, Germany in 1886. As a result of time spent working under the influence of Peter Behrens, Mies developed a design approach based on advanced structural techniques and Prussian Classicism. Famous for the phrase «less is more,» he fostered a style of architecture based on material honesty and structural integrity. Over the last twenty years of his life, Mies achieved his vision of a monumental ‘skin and bone’ architecture, his later works embodying the idea of universal, simplified architecture.
His major works include amongst others: Werkbund Exposition and Apartments: Weissenhofsiedlung, Stuttgart, Germany, 1927; H.Langer House, Krefeld, Germany, 1928; German Pavilion, Barcelona, Spain, built 1928-1929, demolished 1930; Tugendhat House, Brno, Czech Republic, 1930; Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois, 1946-1950; Lake Shore Drive Apartments, Chicago, Illinois, 1948-1951; Crown Hall (IIT), Chicago, Illinois, 1950-1956; Seagram Building, New York, 1954-1958; New National Gallery, Berlin, Germany, 1962-1968.