The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected the 10 recipients of the 2012 Housing Awards. The AIA’s Housing Awards Program, now in its 12th 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.
Continue after the break to view the 2012 recipients.
Skandinavia’s largest architecture prize, Nykredit’s Architecture Prize of DKK 500,000, is this year awarded to the architectural practice COBE based in Copenhagen represented by architect, Dan Stubbergaard. In its choice the jury emphasised the fact that COBE spans the full professional spectrum from minor construction and urban space design to strategic planning and research. Currently, COBE is most renowned for the design and realisation of the new Nørreport Train Station and is currently detailing the development of the Nordhavn harbour area – one of Scandinavia’s largest and most ambitious metropolitan development projects, says the chairman of the prize jury, Mette Kynne Frandsen, Architect and CEO.
The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE) recently announced that it will honor architect I.M. Pei with the fourth annual Leonore and Walter Annenberg Award for Diplomacy through the Arts. The award will be presented at a dinner at the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Reception Rooms today, May 15, 2012. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will host FAPE’s members at the event, and FAPE Chairman Jo Carole Lauder, will present the award to Mr. Pei. The award was established to recognize American individuals who have demonstrated long-term excellence and creative innovation, and recent past honorees include: Agnes Gund, and Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg. More information on the award after the break.
Announced today on his 75th birthday, Spanish Architect Rafael Moneo has been named winner of the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts – an award bestowed to an individual, institution or group of individuals or institutions whose work in Cinematography, Theatre, Dance, Music, Photography, Painting, Sculpture, Architecture or any other form of artistic expression constitutes a significant contribution to Mankind’s culture heritage.
As the 32nd laureate, Rafael Moneo is the fifth architect who has received this award, following Oscar Niemeyer in 1989, Santiago Calatrava in 1999, Franciscco Javier Sáenz de Oíza in 1993 and Lord Foster in 2009.
Aedas recently won 8 prestigious awards at the Asia Pacific Property Awards presentation ceremony, which was held on April 28 in Kuala Lumpur. Center 66 from Hang Lung Properties, a mixed use development of 376,800 sqm straddling across two sites conjoined by a public plaza hosting a cluster of heritage buildings in Wuxi, PRC, won “5 Star Award, Best Mixed Use Architecture for China”, and subsequently won “Best Mixed Use Architecture Award for Asia Pacific”. More information on their awards after the break.
Attracting more than 1.4 million visitors since opening in June, the Riverside Museum, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, recently won the European Museum Academy Micheletti Award 2012. Named the most innovative museum in the fields of technology, labor and social history, Riverside competed against museums in 12 other European countries to win the 17th annual award. More information on the award after the break.
On April 19th, architect Richard Meier, known for buildings such as The Athaneum, the Douglas House and thd Getty Center was honored with the 2012 Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards by the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation at Ellis Island in New Jersey. Meier was one of two recipients, the other former St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, whose grandparents emigrated through Ellis Island. Angela Lansbury was honored as well, having immigrated to America herself at the age of fourteen.
The 2012 RIBANorman Foster Travelling Scholarship has been awarded to Thomas Aquilina of Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, part of the University of Edinburgh. He will be granted £6,000 to develop his proposal, ‘Material Economies: recycling practices in informal settlements along African longitude 30ºE’ , which takes the scholarship’s theme of resources and addresses recycling in informal African settlements. More information on the award after the break.
Twenty projects have been recognized in the 2012 New Zealand Architecture Awards. Proving that design quality is not governed by the size of buildings or type of work, winners in the country’s leading architectural awards program ranged from the Auckland Art Gallery to a Napier artist’s studio, from a chapel in an inner-city church to a café on the side of a mountain, and from an airport hotel to a lakeside school. The jury will select one project from among the New Zealand Architecture Award winners to receive the 2012 New Zealand Architecture Medal, the top award given in any year by the New Zealand Institute of Architects. That decision will be announced at the Awards function in Wellington on 25 May. More images and information on the winners after the break.
Amanda Burden has been making a big impact on the City. As Chair of the New York City Planning Commission and Director of the Department of City Planning, Ms. Burden’s efforts to revitalize New York have resulted in the preservation of the High Line, the creation of the East River Waterfront Esplanade, and the future development of Freshkills Park – a former landfill in Staten Island, to name a few. Both on an architectural and urban level, and also from a sustainability policy viewpoint, Ms. Burden’s years as Chair has effectively “raised the quality of design in our city and our expectations about design and city life.”
This week, Ms. Burden has been recognized by the Architectural League of New York and has been awarded their highest honor, the President’s Medal. Such an award is rightly deserved as Ms Burden’s impact on architecture and planning initiatives has shaped the public spaces that have grown to define New York. The President’s Medal is an honor that is awarded by peers from an organization that is independent of any professional or policy agenda, and with this recognition, Ms. Burden joins recent recipients such as Massimo and Lella Vignelli, Hugh Hardy, Richard Meier, Ada Louise Huxtable, Robert A.M. Stern, Kenneth Frampton, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.
Sana’a, Yemen is at risk of being the first capital city in the World to run out of renewable, reliable and clean water supplies. With seasonal rain, expensive bottled water and polluted reservoirs, the residents of Sana’a are constantly faced with waterborne diseases and severe drought hazards.
In celebration of World Water Day, we would like to catch you up with the progress Sabrina Faber who was selected as winner of the 2010/2011 Philips Livable Cities Award – a global initiative designed to generate innovative, meaningful and achievable ideas to improve the health and well-being of city-dwellers across the world. Although the project went on hold due to political unrest, The Rainwater Aggregations (RAINS) Project was still able to complete three sites just in time for World Water Day. Continue reading for more.
The award recognizes “private-sector architects who have established a portfolio of accomplishment in the design of architecturally distinguished public facilities (category 1); public-sector architects who manage or produce quality design within their agencies (category 2); and public officials or other individuals who by their role of advocacy have furthered the public’s awareness and/or appreciation of design excellence (category 3).”
Follow us after the break for more on the recipients.
The AIA recently awarded CultureNOW and Rice Design Alliance the 2012 Institute Honors for Collaborative Achievement. The award, which recognizes and encourages distinguished achievements of allied professionals, clients, organizations, architect teams, knowledge communities, and others who have had a positive impact on or advanced the profession, will be presented at the 2012 AIA National Convention and Design Exposition in Washington, D.C. More details after the break.
Edward Mazria, architect, founder and CEO of Architecture 2030 was awarded this year’s Purpose Prize. His work over the past eight years, after founding Architecture 2030, has set numerous environmental goals for the building industry. It has also brought many issues of sustainable design to the forefront of conversations and policies about buildings and their construction. Watch the video for more information!