Jennifer Siegal is the winner of the fourth edition of arcVision Prize - Women and Architecture, an international architecture award for women established by Italcementi.
The prize was bestowed unanimously by the jury, which defined her as “a brave pioneer in the research and development of prefabricated building systems, with affordable prices for users and disadvantaged areas of intervention, able to design and build effective and practical solutions and a new language for a low-cost mobile housing typology”.
The assignment of the Award took place on April 7 at Milan Triennal Art Theatre, on the occasion of the XXI Triennal International Exhibition. Among other things, the award consists of a workshop and research project at i.lab, the Italcementi Group Reasearch and Innovation Department designed by Richars Meier.
Born in 1965, the American designer was then chosen by the jury characterized even this year by excellent professionals both in architecture and socio-economic areas: Shaikha Al Maskari (Member of the Executive Council of the Arab International Women's Forum-AIWF), Vera Baboun (Mayor of Bethlehem), Odile Decq (owner of the architecture studio Odile Decq), Yvonne Farrell (co-founder of the architecture studio Grafton Architects), Daniela Hamaui (journalist), Louisa Hutton (co-founder of the architectural firm Sauerbruch Hutton), Suhasini Mani Ratnam (Indian actress, producer and writer), Samia Nkrumah (President of the Pan-African Centre Kwame Nkrumah), Benedetta Tagliabue (owner of the architecture studio Miralles Tagliabue EMBT), Martha Thorne (Pritzker Prize director).
For Jennifer Siegal, founding the Office of Mobile Design Studio in 1998 was the direct consequence of her great interest in the “transitional” spaces. In fact, her activity focuses on the realization of mobile, removable and repositionable structures, based on the research of a new type of prefabrication, which uses industrial processes to create more efficient and agile buildings that sometimes include the use of wheels to make architecture more user-friendly and literally dynamic. The designer faced these issues both through public spaces for education and residential works: for example, in the Saetrain Residence in Los Angeles she created a dynamic living space using simple standard containers.
Coordinated during the working sessions by Stefano Casciani, Scientific Director of the Prize, the jury also bestowed honorable mentions to Pat Hanson (Canada), Elisa Valero Ramos (Spain) and Cazú Zegers (Chile).
