The European Commission and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe have announced today the five finalists which will compete for the 2017 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award. The press conference ran by Stephen Bates, Chairman of the 2017 Jury and Ivan Blasi, coordinator of the Prize, has taken place at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, which generated the organization of the Prize in 1988.
The five finalists are:
- De FlatKleiburg, Amsterdam, by NL Architects and XVW architectuur;
- Ely Court, Londra, by Alison Brooks Architects;
- Kannikegården, Ribe, DK, by Lundgaard &Tranberg Architects;
- Katyn Museum, Varsavia, by BBGK Architekci;
- Rivesaltes Memorial Museum, Rivesaltes, FR, by Rudy Ricciotti, Bandol;
Stephen Bates, architect and Chairman of the Jury declared: “Our instincts could be summed up by the words of Peter Smithson: ‘things need to be ordinary and heroic at the same time’. We were looking for an ordinariness whose understated lyricism is full of potential’.”
Malgorzata Omilanowska, art historian, former Minister of Culture in Poland and member of the Jury, highlighted: “social housing, memory and the problem of context and new constructions in the old city centres have proven to be important to us as a Jury. The finalist works show the problematic of our time; what has happened in the last year reveals the really deep problem of populism and the lack of memory. These 5 projects show the problem that we face as citizens, not only as architecture specialists, but as members of today’s society.”
Anna Ramos, Director of the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, underlined: “The Jury’s selection consolidates the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award as a strategic element by which to promote research into, debate on and dissemination of contemporary architecture in Europe. Issues such as collective housing, the complexity of the European city – both contemporary and historical – and the ability of architecture to create symbolic spaces provide us with the opportunity to extend the debate on the finalist works beyond architectural circuits, because they respond to the concerns of today’s European society.”
Tomorrow (16 February) the 5 finalist works will be presented in Ljubljana during the Conference of the Future Architecture Platform Conference organized by MAO and supported by the Creative Europe program of the European Commission. On 16 May the name of the 2017 Award Winners will be announced at a special event in Brussels waiting for the official Award Ceremony at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion on May 26. Moreover, one of the novelties this year is that between 20 and 28 May, the 4 Finalist works, the Winner and the Emerging Architect buildings will be open to the public to visit and know in situ the works, the architects and other people involved in the organization of the Prize.
