Awards: The Latest Architecture and News

The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts just announced its 2013 Grants to Individuals with over $500,000 being awarded to 60 projects. The grantees, who represent a diverse national and international community of architects, scholars, writers, artists, designers, curators, and others, were selected after a highly competitive application process from a pool of over 600 submissions. The awards, up to $15,000 each, will support publications, exhibitions, films, new media initiatives, public programs, and research that explore innovative and bold ideas in architecture and design. More information on the grantees after the break.

London-based DOS Architects were just announced as the winners of the Renzo Piano Foundation Prize, awarded to the best young Italian Architectural practice. Founded by the Italian-Spanish partnership of Lorenzo Grifantini and Tavis Wright in 2006, the award-winning firm has a wide range of domestic and commercial projects across West Africa, the Middle East and the UK. Featured in the gallery of images is their Duncan Terrace, a residential project completed in 2011 in the UK. DOS Architects truly exemplify a dedication to developing quality architectural work. More images after the break.

Topping the list with American statistician, sabermetrician, psephologist and writer Nate Silver, Principal of FiveThirtyEight, Fast Company’s 2013 compilation of business’s 100 most creative people proves the undeniable value of creativity in business today. This year, a New York landscape architect whose floating islands in Manhattan may one day buffer the city from voracious storms made the list’s top ten, followed by one of the most influential artists of our time as well as an architect and concept designer who are both redefining commercial architecture. Find out who, after the break.

Biennially, representatives from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Library Association (ALA) gather to celebrate the finest examples of library design by architects licensed in the U.S. This year, for the 2013 AIA/ALA Library Building Awards, they choose to honor six outstanding project. View them all after the break.

The winners of the 2013 New Zealand Architecture Awards were just announced as nineteen architectural projects ranging in scale from a big indoor sports centre in Wellington to a micro-bach on the Coromandel Peninsula, and sited in locations as various as Rotoroa Island in the Hauraki Gulf, the shores of Lake Hawea, and The Mall in Washington, DC, were acknowledged. Alongside the Awards bestowed upon exemplary buildings, the New Zealand Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal for career achievement was conferred on Auckland architect Pip Cheshire. More images and information on the winners after the break.

Magma Architecture's Olympic and Paralympic Shooting Arenas have just been distinguished with a 2013 AIA UK Excellence in Design Award. Driven by the desire to evoke an experience of flow and precision inherent in the shooting sport through the dynamically curving space, the shooting arenas were the only buildings of the London 2012 Games to be selected. While all three ranges were configured in a crisp, white double curved membrane façade studded with vibrantly colored openings, the fresh and light appearance of the buildings truly enhanced the festive and celebratory character of the Olympic event. For more images and information on their award-winning project, please visit here.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected the six recipients of the 2013 Housing Awards. The AIA’s Housing Awards Program, now in its 13th year, was established to recognize the best in housing design and promote the importance of good housing as a necessity of life, a sanctuary for the human spirit and a valuable national resource. All the winners, after the break.

Brooklyn-based architect and Harvard GSD alumni Gia Wolff has been awarded the $100,000 Wheelwright Prize for her proposal Floating City: The Community-Based Architecture of Parade Floats. Now in its first edition, the Wheelwright Prize is a travel grant issued by Harvard University in an effort to foster new forms of architectural research led by cross-cultural engagement.

Mohsen Mostafavi: “The positive response to the Wheelwright Prize has been extraordinary. It is inspiring to see so many talented architects with clear agendas and visions. I am delighted for Gia Wolff, the winner of the prize. Her proposed investigations at the intersection of design, performance, and temporality will surely provide us with new insights and new directions for the future of architecture.”

The American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) Housing and Custom Residential Knowledge Community, in conjunction with the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), have recognized three recipients of the 2013 AIA/HUD Secretary Awards. The categories of the program include (1) Excellence in Affordable Housing Design (2) Creating Community Connection Award (no recipient selected this year) (3) Community-Informed Design Award and (4) Housing Accessibility - Alan J. Rothman Award. These awards demonstrate that design matters, and the recipient projects offer examples of important developments in the housing industry.

“These developments prove that you can push the boundaries of design while still creating something very special that folks can actually afford,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. “These projects took innovative visions from the drawing board and made them a part of how we live today.”

Now in its 14th year, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Design Awards recognizing outstanding achievement across a variety of disciplines in the design community. The awards were established to "promote design as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world". This year the recipients will be honored at a gala in October during National Design Week in New York City. The goal of recognizing this achievements is to reinforce the idea that "everything around us is designed" and the potential for innovation and creation is present across all types of development. The winners of this year's design awards were selected based on excellence, innovation and public impact.

Join us after the break for a look at the 2013 Winners.

The Prince Claus Fund is now welcoming project proposals from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean for cultural initiatives related to the rethinking of public space.

The term "public space" is defined as a social space that is open and accessible to all. A public space can take many different forms. It can be a gathering place defined by its social aspect, a civic space, a community space, a virtual space... The strength of the public space is its potential in reaching out and involving a wide and diverse group of people. 

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson has been honored with the Good Design is Good Business Lifetime Achievement Architecture Award, presented by Architectural Record in association with the American Architectural Foundation. The firm is the second recipient of this award in the program’s 15-year history, which was originally started by BusinessWeek and Architectural Record to recognize exceptional contributions to bettering how businesses and institutions perform through architecture. 

From innovative mud and bamboo schools to state of the art “green” high-rises, the Master Jury for the 2013 Aga Khan Award for Architecture has selected 20 deserving nominees to be in the running for the prestigious, US$1 million prize. Since the award was launched 36 years ago, over 100 projects have received the prize and more than 7,500 building projects have been documented for exhibiting architectural excellence and improving the overall quality of life in their regions.

Farrokh Derakhshani, the Director of the Award, remarked: “The Master Jury, which includes some of the most prominent architects of our time, made interesting choices this year. For example, they chose schools in Afghanistan and Syria, but they also chose a hospital in Sudan, a high rise in Bangkok and the reconstruction of a refugee camp in Lebanon. In many ways, the choices reflect a central preoccupation of the Award: the impact of buildings and public spaces on the quality of life. Now this seems fairly mainstream, but we must remember that the Aga Khan Award has been talking about 'human scale' and 'sustainability' since 1977”.

The 2013 Aga Khan Award for Architecture Shortlist includes: 

Known as the 'Oscars of Sustainable Existing Buildings', the finalists for the annual EBie Awards were recently announced by the Urban Green Council which aimed to celebrate sustainability improvements in Existing Buildings (therefore the EBies) and the individuals who made them happen. Recognizing “unsung heroes” who have made great strides in improving environmental performance, research shows that changes to existing buildings will have the greatest environmental impact, despite new buildings often getting the spotlight. More images and information on the finalists and their projects after the break.

With the ambition of honoring and encouraging outstanding artistic talent, the Dutch state prize for the arts - the Johannes Vermeer Award - has been awarded this year to architect and writer Rem Koolhaas. The jury made a unanimous decision, citing Koolhaas’s critical contributions to architecture and urbanism since his career began with the publication of Delirious New York in 1975.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) have selected the top ten examples of sustainable architecture and green design solutions that protect and enhance the environment. 

The COTE Top Ten Green Projects program, now in its 17th year, is the profession's best known recognition program for sustainable design excellence. The program celebrates projects that are the result of a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems and technology. They make a positive contribution to their communities, improve comfort for building occupants and reduce environmental impacts through strategies such as reuse of existing structures, connection to transit systems, low-impact and regenerative site development, energy and water conservation, use of sustainable or renewable construction materials, and design that improves indoor air quality.

The 2013 COTE Top Ten Green Projects and Top Ten Plus after the break...

Zaha Hadid has been announced as the winner of the 41st Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award at a ceremony in London on Monday. Now in its 41st year, the Veuve Clicquot Award was set up by the Champagne house to recognize the work of successful businesswomen worldwide, who embody their spirit of Madame Clicquot.

Madame Clicquot was a 19th Century businesswomen who, after being widowed at the age of 27, took the reigns of her husband's Champagne businessa became one of the first women to lead a male-dominated company. The company describes her as a women who was 'proud and strong-willed' who demanded "only one quality, the finest." The award appraises the nominees under the headings of entrepreneurship, financial success, corporate social responsibility and whether or not they are seen as a role model to others.

The American Academy of Arts and Letters recently announced the recipients of its 2013 architecture awards. Beginning in 1955 with the inauguration of the annual Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture, this is awarded to a preeminent architect from any country who has made a significant contribution to architecture as an art. In 1991, the Academy began giving Arts and Letters Awards (formerly called Academy Awards) to honor American architects whose work is characterized by a strong personal direction. An additional award category was created in 2003 to honor an American from any field who has contributed to ideas in architecture through any medium of expression. Information on the winners after the break.