The European Union's Mies van der Rohe Architecture Award celebrates its 25th anniversary in Barcelona

Barcelona (ACN).- The ceremony of the 13^th European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture Mies van der Rohe Award, which is the most important architecture prize for European works, took place in Barcelona on Friday, in the pavilion designed by the world-famous German architecture for the 1929 Universal Exhibition in Montjuic. The Catalan capital hosts the Mies van der Rohe Foundation, which delivers this award with the European Commission every two years. Reykjavik’s new Concert Hall and Conference Centre ‘The Harp’, designed by Henning Larsen Architects, Studio Olafur Eliasson and Batterrío Architects, won the 2013 Mies van der Rohe Award, which comes with a €60,000 prize and a small sculpture reproducing the pavilion created by the German architect. In addition, the Spanish architects María Langarita and Víctor Navarro won the Special Mention Award for Young Talent for their 2011 project for the Red Bull Music Academy in Madrid’s former slaughterhouse (Matadero). Furthermore, coinciding with the 25^th anniversary of the Awards, which were first given in 1988, Catalonia’s National Museum of Art (MNAC) is hosting the exhibition ‘Constructing Europe, 25 years of architecture’.

The winners of the 2013 edition were announced a few weeks ago, chosen from a short list of candidates that included the City Hall of Ghent (Belgium) by architects Robbrecht en Daem and Marie-José Van Hee; the Superkilen in Copenhagen (Denmark) by BIG Bjarke Ingels Group, Superflex and Topotek1; the Harpa - Concert Hall & Conference Centre in Reykjavik (Iceland) by Batteríid, Henning Larsen and Studio Olafur Eliasson; the House for Elderly People in Alcácer do Sal (Portugal) by Aires Mateus Arquitectos; and the Metropol Parasol in Seville (Spain) by Jürgen Mayer. The final selection of candidates was made by an international jury from a total number of 335 projects from 37 European countries.

The ‘Constructing Europe, 25 years of architecture’ exhibition at the MNAC displays the models from the Mies van der Rohe Foundation, reproducing the projects that have received the prestigious award or that have been candidates to receive it. In total there are 220 projects that are on display according to the country where they were developed. They are on show in the MNAC Oval Room, creating a sort of European map just under the museum’s great dome.