European Union prize for contemporary architecture

ip/03/728

Brussels, 22 May 2003

European Union prize for contemporary architecture

Viviane Reding, the Member of the Commission responsible for education and culture, today announced that the European Union prize for contemporary architecture the Mies van der Rohe Award has gone to Mrs Zaha Hadid for the design and construction of the Hoenheim Nord tram terminal in Strasbourg (France). The special commendation for young architects went to Mr Jürgen Mayer H. for the Scharnhauser Park municipal offices in Ostfildern (Germany).

"Architecture is not just a major art form in Europe it also has important cultural and social implications. This prize is designed to reward the talents of experienced and young architects alike, and to show the people of Europe how good contemporary European architecture is and how it is making a contribution to the harmonious development of our towns and cities," said Viviane Reding.

The prize and the special commendation form part of the "Culture 2000" programme, the initiative coming jointly from the European Commission and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation in Barcelona. The prize is awarded every two years for excellence and innovation in the design, technical merit and construction of European structures, and to help make people more aware of the cultural importance of contemporary architecture and its impact on the current and future development of Europe's towns and cities.

An international jury of nine members⁽¹⁾, comprising experienced architects and acknowledged experts in the field, and chaired by the British architect David Chipperfield, shortlisted 41 works out of an initial total of 269, and visited five of them. This year, the building which received the special commendation was among the five finalists.

The prize goes to recent buildings (no more than two years old) in any of the countries covered by the "Culture 2000" programme. Two awards are made each time round: the European Union prize for contemporary architecture the Mies van der Rohe Award and the special "young architect" commendation, which goes to architects of no more than 40 years of age at the start of their careers. In 2001, the awards went to Rafael Moneo for the Kursaal Centre in San Sebastián (Spain) and to Florian Nagler for the Kaufmann Holz Distribution Centre in Bobingen (Germany).

The Mies van der Rohe Award and the special commendation will be handed to the prize winners on 28 May 2003 in the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona. The Award is worth € 50 000, while the special commendation is worth € 10 000. The two winners will also receive a sculpture by the Catalan artist Xavier Corberó, inspired by the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion.

The ceremony will be followed on 29 May 2003 by a symposium on contemporary European architecture at the Collegi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya at which the two award-winning works and the rest of the shortlisted buildings will be on view. An exhibition of photographs and plans of the 41 shortlisted buildings, along with models and explanatory texts, will then tour various European cities, and a catalogue of these works will be published.

41 works selected by jury

^{(1)Aaron Betsky, Eduard Bru, David Chipperfield, Ingeborg Flagge, Shane OToole, Matthias Sauerbruch, Kazuyo Sejima, Deyan Sudjic, Alejandro Zaera-Polo.}