Barozzi / Veiga’s Philharmonic Hall Szczecin in Szczecin, Poland has been selected as the winner of the 2015 EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture-Mies van der Rohe Award. The design was influenced by the surrounding context and buildings, specifically by the “verticality of the city’s residential buildings, by the monumentality of the upright ornaments of its neo-Gothic churches and the heavy volumes of its Classicist buildings, by the towers that dot its entire skyline and the cranes of its port,” according to the architects. The Philharmonic Hall features large skylights and is clad with glass on the outside, providing a contrast to the surrounding buildings.

The Philharmonic Hall Szczecin was selected over four other finalist projects: Lederer Ragnarsdóttir Oei’s Ravensburg Art Museum; BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group’s Danish Maritime Museum; Archea Associati’s Antinori Winery; and O’Donnell + Tuomey’s Saw Swee Hock Student Centre. The five finalists presented their projects to the jury on May 7, and the official award ceremony was held this morning in Barcelona at Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion.

LAMP Lighting has revealed its top picks for this year’s Lamp Lighting Solutions Awards. Now in their 6^th year, the awards recognize projects that effectively explore the intersections of architecture, interior design, and landscaping with original, innovative, and sustainable lighting. With record internationalization, this year’s awards received 598 submitted projects from 54 countries worldwide.

The Lamp Lighting Solutions Awards span the categories of Architectural Outdoor Lighting, Indoor Lighting, Urban and Landscape Lighting, and Students Proposals. Winners will be announced at a ceremony in Barcelona in June, and will receive monetary prizes between € 2,000 and € 8,000. Additionally, one professional will receive the “Life of Light” award for committing his or her career to lighting.

See all the finalists after the break.

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Five projects have been selected as finalists of the 2015 EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture- Mies van der Rohe Award. The finalists were selected from a shortlist of 40 projects, and over the next couple of months the jury members will visit each of the finalist projects to evaluate the buildings firsthand and gather information from the people who use them. On May 7, the architects will present their projects to the jury. The winner will be announced the following day at a ceremony at Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion.

See the five finalists after the break.

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After months of planning and preliminary design, it is expected that architecture firm KPF will be given permission to proceed with their New Bondway project in Vauxhall, London. This residential complex is sited in the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area, in close proximity to the new US embassy. The property was previously to be the site for the Octave Tower designed by Make architects, until the proposal was rejected by the Secretary of State.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has announced Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates' International Commerce Centre in Hong Kong as the winner of its first ever Performance Award. The new award recognizes the project with the lowest measured environmental impact on the urban realm, as measured using actual data from the completed construction.

The CTBUH explains the need for the prize, saying: "Most awards programs focus on design intent, as opposed to actual performance – often well-intentioned projects are not revisited, and thus not held accountable." KPF's 484-metre tall office tower won the prize based largely on its policy of collecting and sharing performance data.

Read on after the break for more on the award

Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) recently broke ground on what will be Indonesia’s first LEED Platinum building. Currently under construction in the heart of Jakarta, the Sequis Centre Tower is designed as a reinterpretation of the city’s typical glass tower. It will feature ample amounts of office space, along with restaurants, health facilities, retail space, and more.

KPF has unveiled what will be their first project in Turkey: a pair of 40- and 46-story towers that will serve as the new headquarters for the country’s largest and oldest financial institution. The Ziraat Bank Headquarters will be the centerpiece of the new Istanbul International Financial Centre (IIFF), encompassing over 400,000-square-meters of office space and inspired by the site’s rich architectural context.

Southwark planners have recommended an ambitious proposal by international practice Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) and engineer Adams Kara Taylor (AKT II) to add 11 floors to an existing 30-story tower in London. The “incredibly complicated” feat, which would be the world’s first of its kind, would extend Richard Seifert’s 1972 King’s Reach Tower on the South Bank by 44 meters, more than a third its original height.

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Scheduled to be the tallest tower in China and the second tallest building in the world by 2015, Kohn Pedersen Fox’s 660-meter-high Ping’an International Finance Center has received a major unexpected set back. Following an industrywide inspection conducted last week, Shenzhen government officials have discovered that a low-quality sea sand has been used by developers to create substandard concrete for KPF’s supertall skyscraper and at least 15 other buildings under construction.

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