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Emilio Ambasz has won the IN/ARCH Veneto Lifetime Achievement Award 2023. The Argentinian architect received the award at the Revoltella Museum in Trieste during the IN/ARCHITETTURA 2023 awards ceremony, held Friday, September 15. The jury, chaired by Lucia Krasovec-Lucas, voted unanimously for the master architect. Among the reasons that led to the assignment of the award, the jury’s statement reads:
“Emilio Ambasz, pioneer of the ‘back to nature’ approach, has been recognized and celebrated internationally as a father, poet, and prophet of green architecture. Ambasz also curated the cult exhibition Italy: the New Domestic Landscape at MoMA in New York, which brought Italian design to world prominence”.
Although Argentinian, Ambasz has close connections with Italy, where he has completed numerous projects and has received numerous recognitions, including an honorary degree in construction engineering and architecture from Alma Mater Studiorum, Bologna University. Among his projects in Italy, the jury noted the relevance of Fondazione Banca dell'Occhio and Ospedale dell’Angeli, both in Mestre.
Ambasz is recognized as one of the great masters of architecture of our century. Precursors of what would later be defined as green design, his works feature an extensive use of flora as a fundamental element.
The winner of four Compasso d’Oro awards (1981, 1991, 2001, and in 2020 for lifetime achievement), he is an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects and the Royal Institute of British Architects. In 2014, he was awarded the title of Commander of the “Stella al Merito della Repubblica Italiana” for “his contributions to Italian culture”.
The jury described his work as follows: “With his style, which he describes as ‘green over grey,’ he has implemented an unprecedented combination of architecture and vegetation since the seventies, giving shape and substance to achievements that are regarded as fundamental examples for green architectural practices that have spread to every corner of the globe”.
Ambasz commented, “I’m particularly grateful for this award as it comes from a land I’ve been very fond of since I was a student”.
Ambasz’s vision will be the theme of the exhibition Emerging Ecologies: Architecture and the Rise of Environmentalism, curated by the Emilio Ambasz Research Institute, which runs through January 20, 2024, at MoMA in New York. The works on show examine the relationship between environmentalism and architecture.
The institute, whose full name is Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and Natural Environment, was founded in 2020 as a part of MoMA thanks to a generous donation from Legacy Emilio Ambasz Foundation (LEAF).
Images courtesy of Emilio Ambasz Associates
