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As keenly awaited as it is groundbreaking, Fundació Mies van der Rohe’s 2022 calendar of architecture, art, music, dance, and cinema events has been released. And once again, the program stands out for its originality and international edge. Some of the most authoritative international voices in each sector – including key figures in global responses to the major problems affecting our planet – will be discussing equality, sustainability, and democracy. Architecture’s contribution to equity and democracy through its embracing of diversity will be a key topic for discussion among the designers and clients of the winning and finalist entries in the biennial European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award. Decided in collaboration with the European Union, the award field has already been narrowed down to 40 pre-finalist projects from 18 European countries. This year, the official award celebrations will start in May, when it will be possible to view all the projects selected from the over 500 entries, including two projects by Italian studios. The five finalists will be chosen from this shortlist and announced on February 16.
Although the most important event, the award is only one of a series of events on the new calendar, which also includes the Lilly Reich Scholarship for Equality in Architecture and a series of exhibitions to be staged at the Barcelona Pavilion, designed by Lilly Reich and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona.
Forty projects have already been selected by the jury for the new edition of the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award, from which the five finalists will be decided. The finalists will be announced in mid-February. Then, in April, the winners will be announced, in Brussels, and, finally, in May, the awards ceremony will take place inside the Barcelona Pavilion.
The 40 projects still in contention are from 18 different European countries, with Spain, France, and Austria leading the pack with five projects each in the running. Germany (all in Berlin), Belgium, and the United Kingdom all have three projects in contention, while Denmark, Finland, Poland, and Portugal have two each. The other projects are from the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, and Slovenia.
Among the Italian projects is the Enrico Fermi school in Turin, designed by BDR bureau, based in the same city, and completed in 2019. The project, involving the redevelopment of a 1960s building in a suburban area to meet new school guidelines, has been nominated in the Education category. The transformation, an integral part of a local initiative dubbed Torino Fa Scuola that aims to bring innovation to schools, involved the participation of the school and local communities to simultaneously overhaul both teaching spaces and teaching methods. The project was an excellent example of community involvement but also of transforming inflexible spaces that were cut off from their surroundings into a school building that’s open and versatile.
Another Italian practice to make it through is Genoa-based firm Francesca Torzo with a project in Hasselt, Belgium. Nominated for the Culture category, the project, completed in 2019, is the Z33 Huis voor Actuele Kunst, Design & Architectuur, an exhibition space that achieves continuity with existing buildings and, in particular, an existing wing of the museum. A key facet of the design is the way indoor spaces and gardens alternate.
At the end of the year, the Young Talent Architecture Award 2023 will kick off, bringing together schools of architecture and young architects with ideas on how to face the challenges of both today and tomorrow. This year’s edition will be particularly special, with the involvement of the Fundació Mies van der Rohe in the activities planned for the European Year of Youth.
The Fundació Mies van der Rohe established this scholarship named after Lilly Reich in recognition of her architectural legacy. Although Reich worked alongside Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in the design of Germany’s pavilion at the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, her role in both the history and memory of this architectural milestone has been overlooked, if not completely forgotten. The scholarship therefore aims to promote the study and awareness of contributions to architecture by professionals who, for whatever reason, faced discrimination and, therefore, have been unjustly overlooked or forgotten. It also seeks to promote equal opportunity in the practice of architecture.
The winners of the scholarship will be announced on March 8, to coincide with a sneak preview of the documentary [On Set with] Lilly Reich by Laura Lizondo Sevilla, Débora Domingo Calabuig, and Avelina Prat García. The film will later be screened in full as a parallel event at the International Architecture Film Festival Barcelona – BARQ 2022 (May 10–15).
This event brings architecture, art, music, cinema, and dance together in dialogue to trigger – among other things – new creative processes, with each discipline offering the next different compositional materials.
One of the most revealing events on the program, “Psicoarquitectura” – Óscar Abraham Pabón looks at the constructive materiality of the pavilion itself, beginning with its interpretative and psychological dimensions. While the German pavilion of 1929 symbolized what was then the future of the modern house, Psicoaquitectura interprets the evolution of that house from the mental and physical dimensions.
Location: Barcellona
Organization: Fondazione Mies van der Rohe
Photography by Simone Bossi, Lluc Miralles, Gion Balthasar Von Albertini, Anna Mas, courtesy of Fondazione Mies van der Rohe
