Awarding the most creative, disruptive, and influential individuals in the world today, Bjarke Ingels receives the Wall Street Journal’s first annual Innovator of the Year Award for Architecture for BIG’s wildly expressive structures, including the radical re-imagining of the New York high-rise apartment building, the commitment to sustainability and the philosophy of pragmatic utopianism. [More info after the break]

The prize was presented to Bjarke Ingels by author, architect and Founder of TED Conferences Richard Saul Wurman. Other winners include Ai Weiwei (Art); Katie Grand (Fashion); Elon Musk (Technology); Steve Ells (Food); Joris Laarman (Design); and The Giving Pledge, founded by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates (Philanthropy). The ceremony took place at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC , Thursday, October 27th following the official opening of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group’s New York office, Friday, the 21st of October in the presence of Their Royal Highnesses the Crown Prince and Princess of Denmark.

BIG New York is situated in the Chelsea district of New York City and established in order to oversee the development and upcoming construction of West 57th on Manhattan and better service the growing work in North-, South- and Latin-America. BIG is currently involved in a number of projects in San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver and Toronto.

Earlier in October, Bjarke Ingels was selected as the winner of TRH Crown Prince Couple annual Culture Prize 2011, honoring the first architect since the foundation of the Award in 2004 and granted the 2011 Prize of Honor by Danish Dreyer Foundation.

Image courtesy: Bill Farrell Agency.

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BIG wins an invited competition to renovate and extend an existing 1960′s concrete warehouse situated in a Basel industrial district which is being transformed into an alternative Arts District. [More info and renders after the break]

Located in Basel’s upcoming Dreispitz neighborhood, which is envisioned as an attractive and inviting urban quarter in Herzog de Meuron’s master plan from 2003, the existing 18.000 m2 ”Transitlager” built in the late 1960s is to be renovated and extended by up to 7.000 m2 for residential and arts related purposes. The development is undertaken by Basel-based real estate group Nüesch Development for the Christoph Merian Foundation with the assistance of the UBS investment company Balintra AG. The winning entry which included engineers Bollinger Grohmann and HL Technik was chosen among proposals from Harry Gugger Studio and Lacaton Vassal among others.

The Transitlager’s surrounding industrial area is characterized by the geometries of infrastructures – the intersecting railways, loading docks and turning radiuses that weave through the city and create a puzzle of linear buildings with pointy corners and staggered façade lines into an untraditional and adventurous urban area consisting of galleries, restaurants and creative businesses. The iconic character of the existing Transitlager, its generous surrounding public spaces, and connection to the city’s botanical garden makes the building a natural focal point of the Arts District. By re-programming and extending the former warehouse into a multifunctional series of floors for various uses, BIG proposes a cross breed of art, commerce, working and living. Two distinct buildings on top of each other form a mixed-use hybrid with activity and life 24 hours a day.

“We propose a transformation of the Transitlager that builds on the industrial logic of the existing building and of the surrounding area. The extension doubles the size of the Transitlager and becomes an opposite twin – based on the same structure, but with a different geometry. The combined building becomes a spectrum of optimal conditions: From open and flexible plans to tailor made units, public programs to private residences, vibrant urban space to peaceful green gardens and from cool industrial to warm and refined. ” Andreas Klok Pedersen, Partner, BIG.

The wide dimensions of the former warehouse, the mix of programs, the structural limits and the sun orientation creates a typology that is neither point house nor slab – a folded geometry adapted to the specifics of the existing structure and optimized for daylight and views. The staggered edge and pointy ends echoes the geometries of the industrial buildings of the neighborhood, creating a surprising familiarity with the heterogeneous surroundings.

“The stacking of two complimentary structures – one on top of the other – has generated a new take on the typology of the communal courtyard. Where the typical residential courtyard finds itself incarcerated by walls of program, the roofyards of the Transitlager combine the tranquility and communal space of the courtyard with the sunlight and panoramic views of the penthouse. A penthouse for the people.” Bjarke Ingels, Partner and Founder, BIG.

Stripped from existing interior walls, the 60’s era structure offers flexible open plans and an exceptional high quality of concrete work. BIG proposes an extension that with a minimum of intervention, creates a maximum of programmatic diversity and feasibility. By keeping the interior finishing sparse, and installations simple we propose a building tailored for creative businesses, ateliers and workshops. We propose a building with a simple and economical material palette optimized for both artistic work and classy luxury.

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The Serpentine Gallery is delighted to reveal the plans for the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2011 by world-renowned Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. This year’s Pavilion is the 11th commission in the Gallery’s annual series, the world’s first and most ambitious architectural programme of its kind. It will be the architect’s first completed building in the UK and will include a specially created garden by the influential Dutch designer Piet Oudolf. [More info and images after the break]

The concept for this year’s Pavilion is the hortus conclusus, a contemplative room, a garden within a garden. One enters the building from the lawn and begins the transition into the central garden, a place abstracted from the world of noise and traffic and the smells of London – an interior space within which to sit, to walk, to observe the flowers.

With this Pavilion, as with previous structures such as the famous Thermal Baths at Vals, Switzerland, or the Bruder Klaus Chapel in Mechernich, Germany, Zumthor has emphasised the sensory and spiritual aspects of the architectural experience, from the precise yet simple composition and ‘presence’ of the materials, to the handling of scale and the effect of light.

At the heart of Peter Zumthor’s practice is a refined selection of materials used to create contemplative spaces that evoke the spiritual dimension of our physical environment. As always, Zumthor’s aesthetic goal is to customise the building precisely to its purpose as a physical body and an object of emotional experience.

Hortus conclusus
‘A garden is the most intimate landscape ensemble I know of. It is close to us. There we cultivate the plants we need. A garden requires care and protection. And so we encircle it, we defend it and fend for it. We give it shelter. The garden turns into a place.

Enclosed gardens fascinate me. A forerunner of this fascination is my love of the fenced vegetable gardens on farms in the Alps, where farmers’ wives often planted flowers as well. I love the image of these small rectangles cut out of vast alpine meadows, the fence keeping the animals out. There is something else that strikes me in this image of a garden fenced off within the larger landscape around it: something small has found sanctuary within something big.

The hortus conclusus that I dream of is enclosed all around and open to the sky. Every time I imagine a garden in an architectural setting, it turns into a magical place. I think of gardens that I have seen, that I believe I have seen, that I long to see, surrounded by simple walls, columns, arcades or the façades of buildings – sheltered places of great intimacy where I want to stay for a long time.’
Peter Zumthor
May 2011

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Project: Glasgow Riverside Museum
Architect: Zaha Hadid
Program: Exhibition space, cafe, retail and education
Client: Glasgow City Council
Total Area: 11000 sq nt
Exhibition Area: 7000 sq mt
Site Area: 22400 sq mt
Footprint Area: 7800 sq mt
Photography: RiverSide Museum

CONCEPT:
The historical development of the Clyde and the city is a unique legacy; with the site situated where the Kelvin flows into the Clyde the building can flow from the city to the river. In doing so it can symbolise a dynamic relationship where the museum is the voice of both, linking the two sides and allowing the museum to be the transition from one to the other. By doing so the museum places itself in the very context of its origin and encourages connectivity between its exhibits and their wider context.

The building would be a tunnel-like shed, which is open at opposite ends to the city and the Clyde. In doing so it becomes porous to its context on either side. However, the connection from one to the other is where the building diverts to create a journey away from the external context into the world of the exhibits. Here the interior path becomes a mediator between the city and the river which can either be hermetic or porous depending on the exhibition layout. Thus the museum positions itself symbolically and functionally as open and fluid with its engagement of context and content.

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The New Amsterdam Plein & Pavilion at Peter Minuit Plaza has now officially opened to the public in New York City’s Battery Park. The pavilion was designed by Amsterdam-based Ben Van Berkel/UNStudio in collaboration with Handel Architects LLP, New York serving as associate architect. The project’s landscape was conceived by Parks Dept. Landscape Designer Gail Wittwer-Laird. [more images and project description after the break]

Commissioned by The Battery Conservancy and developed in collaboration with the Parks Department and Department of Transportation, the New Amsterdam Plein & Pavilion was made possible by a generous $2.3 million gift from the Kingdom of the Netherlands to New York City, in honor of four centuries of friendship and a mutual passion for the values of innovation and creativity, diversity and openness, entrepreneurship and progress.

The site will be New York City’s first true 21st century intermodal transportation hub – where bicycles, buses, the subway and water transportation intersect with cultural offerings in a singular expression of daring but lyrical design – and will convert an intersection traveled by more than 150,000 residents and visitors daily into Lower Manhattan’s newest and most dynamic destination for cultural activity, entertainment, and enjoyment.

The Plein & Pavilion project was conceived by the Battery Conservancy to create an extraordinary ‘outdoor living room’ for spontaneous and scheduled activities, public markets, seating and shade, and a gleaming white, state-of-the-art pavilion for visitor information and delicious locally grown gourmet food.

UNStudio’s design for New Amsterdam Plein & Pavilion creates a 5,000 square-foot, carefully programmed space located within Peter Minuit Plaza, housing regional organic food by Merchants Market, as well as the Alliance for Downtown New York’s Visitor Information Booth. This highly sculptural pavilion stands as a gateway to the Battery’s park and waterfront, with an expressive, undulating roofline and curving walls;  a compact little building with the authority of a major landmark, evoking a flower opening to its surroundings.

Every night at 12:00AM midnight, the New Amsterdam Pavilion will glow with an array of colors in tribute to Peter Minuit whose name translates to ‘midnight.’ 1626 consolidated the early settlements at the tip of Manhattan: a grouping that came to be known as New Amsterdam. This destination is, in the words of architect Ben van Berkel, “the ideal site for a permanent commemoration of 400 years of Dutch history in New York, because it is steeped in a sense of a shared past and looks directly toward the harbor where Henry Hudson sailed, but is also entirely focused on the future by virtue of its role as a modern transportation hub within the constantly changing scene of Lower Manhattan. This is a site where history meets the future.”

Project: New Amsterdam Plein & Pavilion
Architect: UNStudio
Ben van Berkel, Caroline Bos with Wouter de Jonge, Christian Veddeler and Kyle Miller, Jan Schellhoff, Wesley Lanckriet, Arndt Willert
Location: Battery Park, New York, USA.
Collaborators:
Handel Architects, New York
(Executive Architect)
Gary Handel, AIA, D. Blake Middleton, FAIA, LEED AP, Stephen Matkovits, AIA, LEED AP, Mark Morris
Buro Happold
(Lighting Design and Structural, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection Engineering)

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The next big event in China after the Beijing Olympics and Shanghai Expo with a projected 12 Mio visitors for the coming 6 months, Xi’an International Horticultural Expo has officially opened last Thursday and already received more than 200,000 visitors over the first weekend. The ancient city of Xi’an- home to the Terracotta Army and many buildings of unique historical significance- is using this opportunity to focus on the current challenges from its recent growth and transformation. [More images and project description after the break]

The International Horticultural Expo has become the instigator and hub for the redevelopment of a large area between the airport and the centre of the ancient city of Xi’an. The city is known as the home of the Terracotta Army of the Qin Dynasty (210 BC) and is also a major business centre for the vast interior of the Chinese mainland.

GroundLab, in collaboration with Plasma Studio, were successful in winning this international competition following invitation, with a radical self-sustainable vision for the future. The project entitled Flowing Gardens creates constant functionality using water, planting, circulation and architecture harmonized into one seamless system.

The proposal comprises of a 5000m2 Exhibition Hall, a 4000m2 Greenhouse and a 3500m2 Gate Building sitting in a 37 ha landscape that will house the International Horticultural Expo and create a park for Xi’an City as its legacy. The opening will be in 2011, and is expected to receive approximately 15 Mio visitors.

Flowing Gardens unfolds into many sinuous paths, creating a network for intermingling circulation, landscape and water. The given topography and its existing slopes were used as inspiration to draw out paths in a similar way to roads around a mountain, negotiating the steepness with gradients. These paths vary in width, ranging from main walkways and arteries to towpaths. The patches between these paths become zones for various types of planting and natural wetland areas. The three projected buildings, located at the intersections of the major pathways, are developed as articulated nodes of the landscape.

Landscape
The project proposes a hybrid of both natural and artificial systems, brought together as a synergy of waterscapes. With consideration to the amount of water required for irrigation, the project seeks to introduce various technologies and designs found in nature, but it is enhanced to meet the specific needs of the new population. Rainwater is collected and channeled into the wetland areas, where natural plants and reed beds clean and store the water, which is then later dispersed and used for irrigation. These integrated wetlands and ponds are also to be enjoyed by the visitors as oasis and points of personal tranquility.

More complex water cycle issues are sensitively controlled with the introduction of grey and black water treatment systems. The proposal aims to make use of the initial investment and organization during the exhibition, to set up an environment, which becomes autonomous in function and character. The gardens transform the artificial and natural conditions of the site into a sustainable system that becomes increasingly more maintenance-free once the exhibition is over, allowing the park to develop into a new model, or paradigm, within the horticultural industry. The park area manifests in a variety of scales in association with very specific planting, surfacing and lighting, thus providing a sandbox of experiences that ranges from the very intimate with semi-enclosed, shaded, self contained, one- to-one spaces, to the very public with communal plazas formed by wider pedestrian paths with full exposure to the sun and a direct, uninterrupted visual link to the main hiatus on the site.

The Guangyun Entrance
The Guangyun Entrance operates as infrastructure and fulfils the role of bridging the main road that dissects the site. It channels visitors from the plaza at the entrance where they congregate and orient themselves, plotting their direction. Their path over the bridge rises 7m and offers vantage points to gain an overview of the different zones of the Expo displayed ahead.

Bridge design often has two lanes: one for incoming and another for outgoing traffic. However in this case, the flows are uneven and change throughout the day. With inspiration taken from rush hour escalator traffic in the London Underground stations, the bridge has been devised with three lanes, so the middle lane can switch direction from incoming in the morning to outgoing later in the day.

These three bands read as interwoven braids, and together with a surrounding trellis roofed structure, they give the appearance of bands of landscape peeling off and rejoining the mass at the end of the journey. Between the three bands are green areas and a water feature for visitors to stop, rest and enjoy the view. Above, an open trellis steel structure forms the shading device that is intended to become naturally overgrown with climbing plants, thus forming a green roof, and suggests the theme of the Expo to distant onlookers. The lightweight roof has been developed together with Arup engineers as an innovative integral structure that appears as beams seemingly free-floating in space.

Theme Pavilion
The Theme Pavilion is located on the edge of the lake as the endpoint to the central axis that starts with the Gate Building, and is the starting point for the water crossing by boat. It ties in with a series of piers that follow the landscape jutting out into the water. The built volume is interwoven with the articulating ground, producing continuities on many levels integrating the landscape and building together. From this flows the organization of the building massed as three parallel volumes within the landscape, flowing through and underneath, leading to the piers, the volumes themselves hover as cantilevers over the lake. The fluid experience of passing through the landscape continues inside, where all zones are generous and interconnected. The use of ramps enables visitors to move up to the mezzanine level and out onto the roof of the building. Through its materiality the building again manifests itself as an extension of the ground with its floors and interior walls made from high quality concrete and bronze is used, as a locally sourced material, to wrap the buildings partially while bands of greenery cover it like a tessellated net. The roofs are structured as a series of folds, which can be experienced as articulated ceilings introducing a finer grain into the otherwise simple and minimal spaces.

Green House
The Greenhouse is formed as a precious crystal, semi-submerged in splendid isolation reached by boat across the lake followed by a short walk from the shore. The greenhouse blends into the hillside even more so than the other two structures. The building is entered through a prolonged cut, literally scooped up from the ground, emerging within a light-filled cavernous reception space.

From here the visitor passes along a tessellated mesh of paths through three different climatic zones with corresponding plant environments. The greenhouse has a horseshoe plan creating a loop that changes radically in section to accommodate a sequence of different planting and spatial conditions. With the ground inside and out, gradually changing in relation to each other, the visitor experiences sequences of visual enclosure alternating with long vistas out and across. The horseshoe shape also generates an inner courtyard of outside space, making it the natural centre of the building, dissected by two paths that slope up and pass over the roof at the apex of the greenhouse and further into the landscape. This creates a three-dimensional interweaving of interior and exterior circulation.

The first environment encountered by visitors is the ‘arctic zone’, sitting relatively low inside the ground, directed towards the north. The paths are sunken further so that visitors are closer to the small and delicate plant features. The building then turns a corner to become the ‘rare plants zone’, laid out to contain a finer capillary weave of plant beds and paths. From here visitors walk up to the highest point in the building, where they enter into the ‘tropical zone’, fully exposed to sunlight at the southeastern side of the hillside facing the lake. It has a total height of 18 meters and contains abundant and exuberant vegetation. Visitors then walk down to the lower level along a series of ramps, experiencing a rich variety of vantage points celebrating the complex and multilayered fabric of the expo.

International Competition: 1. Prize, 2009
Project: 2009-2011
Opening: April 28th 2011
Completion: March 2011
Client: Chan-Ba Ecological District
Total Area: 37 Ha
Architecture: Plasma Studio, BIAD
Landscape Design: GroundLab, LAUR Studio, Beijing Forestry University
Engineers: John Martin and Associates, Arup

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Project: Bella Sky Hotel
Architect: 3XN Architects
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Client: Bella Center A/S
Size: 42,000 m2
Height: 76.5 m (23 floors)
Number of Rooms: 814 rooms and 30 conference rooms
Engineer: Rambøll Denmark
Photography: Adam Mørk

With its 814 rooms and 30 conference rooms, the hotel offers a wealth of new accommodation and resources for the Bella Convention and Congress Center in Copenhagen. In future, this will draw an even larger segment of the international world class conferences and events to Copenhagen.

3XN has designed the Bella Sky Hotel to create a distinct new profile on the Copenhagen skyline, with the two towers reaching up 76.5 meters, and leaning out at a staggering 15 degrees in each direction (11 degrees more than the leaning tower of Pisa).  This results in a sculptural building unique in Copenhagen which has started drawing many curious looks from all over the city.

‘We have knowingly worked towards designing a building unlike anything else in Copenhagen – And we did that because Ørestad, which is a new city neighbourhood is also unlike any other place in Copenhagen.  Bella Sky is designed specifically to reflect the identity of Ørestad, contributing in a positive manner,’ says Kim Herforth Nielsen, Principal and Founder of 3XN.

3XN has also designed a large portion of the interior, and in that regard has aimed to differentiate itself from other hotels.

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BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), Martha Schwartz Landscape, Buro Happold , Speirs & Major, Lutzenberger & Lutzenberger, and Global Cultural Asset Management are today announced as the winning team of the international design competition for a new 27.000 m2 cultural complex in Albania, consisting of a Mosque, an Islamic Centre, and a Museum of Religious Harmony.

The capital Tirana is undergoing an urban transformation which includes the restoration and refurbishment of existing buildings, the construction of a series of new public and private urban structures, and the complete reconceptualization of Scanderbeg Square. This important square is the site of the new cultural complex that will consist of a Mosque, an Islamic Centre, and a Museum of Religious Harmony.

Albania is the crossroads of three major religions: Orthodox Christianity; Catholicism; and Islam. With the recent completion of two new churches, all three religions will now have new places of worship in the heart of Tirana. The complex will not only serve the Muslim community of the city and surrounding areas, but will educate the public about Islamic values and serve as a beacon for religious tolerance.

BIG’s winning entry was selected out of five finalists, including Spanish Architect Andreas Perea Ortega, Architecture Studio from France, Dutch SeARCH and London-based Zaha Hadid.

”The winning proposal was chosen for its ability to create an inviting public space flexible enough to accommodate daily users and large religious events, while harmonically connecting with the Scanderbeg square, the city of Tirana and its citizens across different religions. Additionally the project shines through its beautiful garden surrounding the new Mosque and Center of Islamic Culture which symbolically features the rich vegetation described in Islamic literature. Finally the team’s awareness of the economic aspects of this important development will contribute to a successful realization of this project.” Mayor of Tirana, Edi Rama.

The buildings’ forms emerge from two intersecting axes and formal requirements: the city grid of Tirana which calls for the proper framing of the square and a coherent urban identity, and orientation of the Mosque’s main wall towards Mecca. BIG’s proposal incorporates Tirana’s grid by maintaining the street wall and eaves line, yet rotates the ground floor so both the Mosque and the plaza face the holy city of Islam. This transformation also opens up a series of plazas—two minor ones on the sides of the Mosque and a major plaza with a minaret in front—which are semi-covered and serve as an urban extension of the place of worship. By turning the mosque inside out and bringing the program and qualities of the Mosque to a public arena, the religion becomes inclusive and inviting, and the cool shaded urban space can be shared by all.

“This project is very significant for us for two reasons: Firstly it is a privilege to contribute to the ambitious rejuvenation of Tirana City – especially since it is happening not by the random accumulation of singular monuments – but rather in accordance with a careful and considerate holistic master plan. Secondly and perhaps most importantly –religious tolerance is one of our greatest challenges today– politically, culturally and even urbanistically. With the construction of the New Mosque of Tirana, The Islamic Center and The Museum of Religious Harmony – Tirana will reestablish the equilibrium by adding a mosque to the newly completed Orthodox and Catholic Cathedrals – making Tirana an example for the rest of the world as a global capital of religious harmony”, Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner of BIG.

The mosque can accommodate up to 1,000 people performing their daily prayers. Through the unique layout of courtyards and public space, the mosque can also expand to accommodate larger groups of 5,000 on Fridays and up to 10,000 on special holy days. The facade with the multitude of rational, rectangular windows finds its inspiration in Islamic mashrabiya screens, which provide shading and privacy while still allowing views out. The light qualities of the mosque will change dramatically throughout the day as the light washes across the curved facades.

“The alignment towards Mecca solves the dilemma inherent in the master plan – in its triangular layout the mosque was somehow tugged in the corner – now it sits at the end of the plaza – framed by its two neighbors. The resultant architecture evokes the curved domes and arches of traditional Islamic architecture – for both the mosque itself and the semi-domed spaces around it”, Thomas Christoffersen, Partner-in-Charge, BIG.

The design also includes The Quran Gardens containing all of the plants mentioned in the Quran in the same amount as the number of times they appear in the holy scripture.

Project: “A Mosque for All” New Mosque, Islamic Cultural Center, and Museum of Religious Harmony
Partner-in-Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Thomas Christoffersen
Project Leader: Leon Rost
Project Team: Marcella Martinez, Se Yoon Park, Alessandro Ronfini, Daniel Kidd, Julian Nin Liang, Erick Kristanto, Ho Kyung Lee
Type: Invited Competition
Client: Municipality of Tirana, Albanian Muslim Community
Collaborators: Martha Schwartz Landscape, Buro Happold , Speirs & Major, Lutzenberger & Lutzenberger, and Global Cultural Asset Management
Size: 27,000 m2
Location: Tirana, Albania
Status: 1st Prize
Date: May 2nd 2011
Renders: Courtesy BIG

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© Ute Zscharnt

The Neues Museum in Berlin is the winner of the 2011 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award, the European Commission and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation announced today. The building is a reconstruction, blending old and new, by UK architect Sir David Chipperfield. The ‘Emerging Architect Special Mention’ award goes to Ramon Bosch and Bet Capdeferro for the Collage House in Girona, Spain. The award ceremony will take place on 20 June at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona. [More info and images after the break.

Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, said: "My congratulations to our winners who have created two exceptional buildings. The Neues Museum brings the past and present together in an stunning mix of contemporary architecture, restoration and art. The Collage House in Girona is another remarkable renovation which fuses old and new materials in a harmonious whole."

The original Neues Museum, designed by Friedrich August Stüler, was built in the mid-19th century. The building was severely damaged in the Second World War and reconstruction began in 2003, with the aim of restoring the site to its former glory. David Chipperfield, who worked on the project in collaboration with fellow British architect Julian Harrap, adopted a dynamic approach in his restoration. Rather than attempting to conceal the difference between the old and new elements, the past and present are beautifully combined to create an unforgettable building with multiple layers.

© Ute Zscharnt

David Chipperfield, Principal of David Chipperfield Architects, said: “The reconstruction of the Neues Museum is a testament to the collaborative process undertaken in a demanding climate of public opinion. The result is evidence not only of the efforts of the professional team but of the commitment of the client and the city authorities to engage in this rigorous and articulated process.”

Mohsen Mostafavi, Chair of the jury, said: “The rebuilding of the Neues Museum is an extraordinary achievement. Rarely have an architect and client succeeded in undertaking a work of such historic importance and complexity; especially one that involves both preservation and new building. The project raises and addresses many aesthetic, ethical, and technical issues. It is an exemplary demonstration of what collaboration can achieve in the context of contemporary European architectural practice.”

© Ute Zscharnt

Lluís Hortet, Director of the Mies van der Rohe Foundation, said: “The decision of the jury was an extraordinary challenge due to the high quality of all the finalist projects. The Neues Museum by David Chipperfield is a very important statement of how a contemporary architectural intervention contributes to the re-use of our heritage by improving its functional qualities and introducing outstandingly designed new architectorial elements for its museological purpose.”

Architecture brings a significant contribution to EU economy. The sector represents an important part of the cultural and creative industries, which provide quality jobs for 8.5 million people in the EU and contribute 4.5% to Europe’s GDP. The EU Culture programme – with a total budget of €400 million for 2007-2013 – supports cooperation projects in the field of architecture and cultural heritage.

© Ute Zscharnt

Launched in 1987, the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award is the most prestigious award in European architecture. It is presented every other year and the winner receives €60,000. The ‘Emerging Architect Special Mention’ gets €20,000.

The winners were chosen from 343 submitted works in 33 European countries. Six works were shortlisted for the main award. The other finalists were: Bronks Youth Theatre (Brussels, Belgium, designed by Martine De Maeseneer, Dirk Van den Brande); MAXXI: Museum of XXI Century Arts (Rome, Italy, by Zaha Hadid, Patrick Schumacher, Gianluca Racana); Concert House Danish Radio (Copenhagen, Denmark, by Jean Nouvel); Acropolis Museum (Athens, Greece, by Bernard Tschumi) and Rehabilitation Centre Groot Klimmendaal (Arnhem, The Netherlands, by Koen van Velsen).

© Ute Zscharnt

The jury members who selected the finalists for 2011 are: Mohsen Mostafavi, Chair of the jury / Dean, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA; Ole Bouman, Director, Nederlands Architectuurinstituut, Rotterdam; Yvonne Farrell, Grafton Architects, Dublin; Annette Gigon, Gigon/Guyer, Zürich; Anne Lacaton, Lacaton & Vassal Architectes, Paris; Tarald Lundevall, SNØHETTA, Oslo; Pei Zhu,Studio Pei-Zhu, Beijing, and Lluís Hortet, Secretary of the jury / Director of the Fundació Mies van der Rohe.

Mies van der Rohe Foundation
The Mies van der Rohe Foundation (Fundació Mies van der Rohe) was set up in 1983 by the Barcelona City Hall with the initial purpose of reconstructing the German Pavilion, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) for the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition. In addition to preserving and managing the Pavilion, the Foundation also focuses on: promoting debate about contemporary architecture and urbanism; building a documentary archive about Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as well as modern and contemporary architecture; and organising correlated awards, courses, lectures, exhibitions, publications and studies.

© Ute Zscharnt

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This year’s Pavilion is the 11th commission in the Gallery’s annual series, the world’s first and most ambitious architectural programme of its kind. It will be the architect’s first completed building in the UK and will include a specially created garden by the influential Dutch designer Piet Oudolf. [More info after the break]

At the heart of Peter Zumthor’s Pavilion is a garden that the architect hopes will inspire visitors to become observers. Zumthor’s says his design ‘aims to help its audience take the time to relax, to observe and then, perhaps, start to talk again – maybe not.’ The design emphasises the role the senses and emotions play in our experience of architecture. With a refined selection of materials Zumthor creates contemplative spaces that evoke the spiritual dimension of our physical environment. As always, Zumthor’s aesthetic goal is to customise the building precisely to its purpose as a physical body and an object of emotional experience.

Zumthor has stated that ‘the concept for this year’s Pavilion is the hortus conclusus, a contemplative room, a garden within a garden. The building acts as a stage, a backdrop for the interior garden of flowers and light. Through blackness and shadow one enters the building from the lawn and begins the transition into the central garden, a place abstracted from the world of noise and traffic and the smells of London – an interior space within which to sit, to walk, to observe the flowers. This experience will be intense and memorable, as will the materials themselves – full of memory and time.’

Materials have always played an evocative as well as an essential role in the buildings designed by Zumthor. The 2011 Pavilion will be constructed of a lightweight timber frame wrapped with scrim and coated with a black paste mixed with sand. Exterior and interior walls with staggered doorways will offer multiple paths for visitors to follow, gently guiding them to a central, hidden inner garden. The covered walkways and seating surrounding this central space will create a serene, contemplative environment from which visitors may look onto the richly planted sunlit garden, the heart and focus of the building.

With this Pavilion, as with previous structures such as the famous Thermal Baths at Vals, Switzerland, or the Bruder Klaus Chapel in Mechernich, Germany, Zumthor has emphasised the sensory and spiritual aspects of the architectural experience, from the precise yet simple composition and ‘presence’ of the materials, to the handling of scale and the effect of light.

The Serpentine’s Pavilion commission, conceived in 2000 by Gallery Director Julia Peyton-Jones, has become an international site for architectural experimentation and follows a decade of Pavilions by some of the world’s greatest architects. Each pavilion is sited on the Gallery’s lawn for three months and the immediacy of the commission – a maximum of six months from invitation to completion – provides a unique model worldwide.

Julia Peyton-Jones, Director, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director, Serpentine Gallery, said: “It is an honour and a great joy to be working with Peter Zumthor on the 11th Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. The commission allows us allowed to connect with best architects in the world and each year is an exciting and completely new experience. Zumthor’s plans will realise an exquisite space for the public to enjoy throughout the summer.”

Zumthor’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion will operate as a public space and as a venue for Park Nights, the Gallery’s high-profile programme of public talks and events. Park Nights will culminate in the annual Serpentine Gallery Marathon in October, now in its sixth year. In 2006 the Park Nights programme included the renowned 24-hour Serpentine Gallery Interview Marathon, convened by Hans Ulrich Obrist and architect Rem Koolhaas; in 2007, by the Serpentine Gallery Experiment Marathon presented by artist Olafur Eliasson and Hans Ulrich Obrist; in 2008, Obrist led over 60 participants in the Serpentine Gallery Manifesto Marathon. This was followed in 2009 by the Serpentine Gallery Poetry Marathon and in 2010 by the Serpentine Gallery Map Marathon.

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