IP/07/570
Brussels, 26 April 2007
MUSAC Contemporary Art Museum of Castilla y León by Mansilla + Tuñón wins the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award 2007
Ján Figel’, European Commissioner in
charge of Education, Training, Culture and Youth and Jordi Hereu, Mayor of
Barcelona and President of the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, have announced
today that the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies
van der Rohe Award 2007 has been granted to the MUSAC - Contemporary Art Museum
of Castilla y León, Spain by Luis M. Mansilla and Emilio
Tuñón/Mansilla + Tuñón.
The
jury[1], chaired
by Richard Burdett, visited the seven finalists works before coming to their
decision regarding the laureat of the Award for this
edition2.
In making their decision to grant the Award to the MUSAC the jury praised the tectonic clarity of the building and the intelligent realisation of the programme. The jury appreciated the conceptual basis of a series of flexible interior spaces that deal effectively with the challenges of exhibiting contemporary art.
The Emerging Architect Special Mention goes to Matija Bevk and Vasa J. Perović/Bevk Perović arhitekti for their Faculty of Mathematics in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
The selection of the award winners is a reflection of the main objective underlying the Award, namely to acknowledge excellent and innovative projects characterised by high-quality construction and to recognise the best architectural works built in Europe in the past two years. By supporting this Award in the framework of the Community Culture Programme the Commission underlines the role that cultural activities play as engineers of creativity and innovations in Europe.
Complementary information available to the press: http://www.miesbcn.com/en/press.html
[1] Jury members: Richard Burdett (chair), Peter Cachola Schmal, Luis Fernández Galiano, Beth Galí, Bettina Götz, Ellen van Loon, Mohsen Mostafavi, Francis Rambert and Dietmar Steiner. Lluís Hortet (secretary), Diane Gray (coordinator of the prize)
2 Pôle universitaire de sciences de gestion (School for Management), Bordeaux, France. Architect : Anne Lacaton & Jean Philippe Vassal/Lacaton & Vassal Architectes
Centre Chorégraphique National (National Choreographic Centre), Aix-en-Provence, France. (Rudy Ricciotti)
Phaeno Science Centre, Wolfsburg, Germany. Architects : Zaha Hadid/Zaha Hadid Architects
Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart, Germany. Architects : Ben van Berkel/UN Studio
Centro de Artes de Sines (Sines Art Centre), Sines, Portugal. Manuel Aires Mateus, Francisco Aires Mateus/Aires Mateus e Associados
Edifici Veles e Vents (Americas’ Cup Building), Valencia,Spain. David Chipperfield/ David Chipperfield Architects, Fermin Vázquez /b720 Arquitectos.
MUSAC Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC Contemporary Art Museum of Castilla y León), León, Spain. Architects: Luis M. Mansilla, Emilio Tuñón/Mansilla + Tuñón.
