The Jury of the 13th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia composed of Wiel Arets (President, Netherlands), Kristin Feireiss (Germany), Robert A.M. Stern (USA), Benedetta Tagliabue (Italy) and Alan Yentob (Great Britain) has decided to confer the awards as follows:
Golden Lion for Best National Participation to JapanArchitecture possible here? Home-for-AllNaoya Hatakeyama; Kumiko Inui; Sou Fujimoto; Akihisa Hirata(Pavilion at Giardini)Commissioner: Toyo Ito. Deputy Commissioners: Atsuko Sato, Tae Mori
Golden Lion for the Best Project of the Common Ground Exhibition toTorre David / Gran Horizonte, 2012Urban-Think Tank (Alfredo Brillembourg, Hubert Klumpner), Justin McGuirk and Iwan Baan(exhibited at Corderie, Arsenale)
Silver Lion for a promising practice of the International Exhibition Common Groundto Grafton Architects (Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara)(Ireland, exhibited at Central Pavilion, Giardini)Common Ground, 2012
The Jury has also decided to assign four Special Mentions:PolandMaking the walls quake as if they were dilating with the secret knowledge of great powersKatarzyna Krakowiak(Pavilion at Giardini)Commissioner: Hanna Wróblewska. Curator: Michal Libera
United States of AmericaSpontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good596 Acres; AFHny Studio; Mouna Andraos; Ants of the Prairie; Architecture for Humanity Chicago; Austin Urban Solutions & Rosner Studio; Manuel Ávila; Baltimore Development Cooperative; Barkow Leibinger Architects & Kyle Talbott; David Benjamin and Natalie Jeremijenko; BK Farmyards; BroLab; Brooklyn Night Bazaar; Eduardo Cachucho; Center for Urban Pedagogy; Candy Chang; and Civic Center; Cheng+Snyder; Chicago Loop Alliance; City Repair; City Fabric; Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative at Kent State University; CMG Landscape Architecture; Come Out and Play; COMMONstudio; Graham Coreil-Allen; Crookedworks; Nicholas de Monchaux; Department of Urban Betterment; Depave; Design 99; Design That Moves You; Do Tank; DSGN AGNC, ENS_Projects; envelope A+D; Jason Eppink;Jason Eppink and Posterchild; Free Agents Imbert and Meijerink; Free Art and Technology Laboratory (F.A.T: Lab); Freecell; French 2Design; Futurefarmers; Evan Gant and Alex Tee; Ghana ThinkTank; GOOD; Guerrilla Grafters; HabitatMap; Fritz Haeg; Hellmuth; Obata + Kassabaum; Hester Street Collaborative; HOK; Howling Mob Society; ICE-POPS; Institute for Urban Design; Interboro Partners; International Design Clinic; Jackson Heights Green Alliance; Kingshighway Vigilante Transitions; LA Department of DIY; LA Green Grounds; Lang Architecture; Make It Right Foundation; Street Plans Collaborative; M12; Macro Sea, MAS Studio, MIT Media Lab; Molly Dilworth Studio; Ken Mori & Jenny Liang; Eve Mosher; MyBlockNYC; Neighborland; No Longer Empty; Normal Projects; Object Orange; Occupy Wall Street 8various, including inflatable General Assembly and OWS Screenprinters’ Guild; OpenPlans; Philadelphia Horticultural Society; PlanningCorps; Popularise; Public Architecture; Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science; Public Media Institute; Alexandra Pulver; Rebar; Rebuild Foundation; Red Swing Project; Resource Center; Rockwell Group; James Rojas; SanFranStudios; Sensemakers; Shared Spaces Landscape Architecture and ‘Hood Builders; SLO Architecture; Stamen; Streetfilms; Syracuse University School of Architecture; Team Better Block; Matt Tomasulo/CityFabric; TreeKIT; TheUni Project with Howeler + Yoon Architecture; Urban Operations; Urbano Activo; UrbanUXd; Rob Walker & Ellen Susan; Dave Winslow and Loring Sagan; Ed Woodham; WORKac; youarethecity; Z-A Studio(Pavilion at Giardini)Commissioner/Curator:Cathy Lang Ho. Curators: Ned Cramer, David van der Leer.Deputy Curators: Paola Antonelli, Anne Guiney, Zoe Ryan, Michael Sorkin
Russiai-cityAREP; SPEECH Tchoban/Kuznetsov; David Chipperfield Architects; Valode& Pistre; Mohsen Mostafavi; OMA; SANAA; Herzog& de Meuron; Stefano Boeri architetti; Project MEGANOM; MDP/Michel Desvigne paysagiste; BERNASKONI architecture bureau(Pavilion at Giardini)Commissioner: Grigory Revzin. Curator: Sergei Tchoban.Deputy Curators: Sergey Kuznetsov, Valeria Kashirina
Cino Zucchi(Milan, Italy, exhibited at Corderie, Arsenale)Copycat. Empatia e invidia come generatori di forma, 2012
The Awards Ceremony of the 13th International Architecture Exhibition will take place today, Wednesday 29th August 2012 in the Giardini at noon. The Board of la Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, is also awarding Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement under director David Chipperfield’s proposal to:
Álvaro Siza Vieira
Golden Lion for the Best National Participation
The Golden Lion for the Best National Participation, which captures the spirit of Common Ground, is awarded to the Japanese Pavilion in which leading international architect Toyo Ito collaborated with younger architects and with the local community to address in a practical and imaginative way the design of a new centre for a region devastated by a national disaster.
The presentation and the storytelling in the Pavilion are exceptional and highly accessible to a broad audience. The jury was impressed with the humanity of this project.
Golden Lion for the Best Project of the International Exhibition Common Ground
The Golden Lion for the Best Project embodying the theme of Common Ground goes to Torre David / Gran Horizonte by Urban-Think Tank (Alfredo Brillenbourg, Hubert Klumpner) and Justin McGuirk and Iwan Baan and to the people of Caracas and their families who created a new community and a home out of an abandoned and unfinished building.
The jury praised the architects for recognizing the power of this transformational project. An informal community created a new home and a new identity by occupying Torre David and did so with flair and conviction. This initiative can be seen as an inspirational model acknowledging the strength of informal societies.
Silver Lion for a promising practice of the International Exhibition Common Ground
The Silver Lion of the International Exhibition Common Ground is awarded to Grafton Architects (Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara) as a promising and emerging practice. For their impressive presentation of a new University campus in Lima, connecting to the ideas of Paulo Mendes da Rocha. The jury believes that the conceptual and spatial qualities of this installation demonstrate the considerable potential of this architectural practice in reimagining the urban landscape.
A Special mention goes to Poland for ‘Making the walls quake as if they were dilating with the secret knowledge of great powers’. This brave and bold installation reminds the visitor to listen as well as to look... And to feel the sound of the Common Ground.
A Special mention goes to the United States of America for ‘Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good’. This interactive installation impressed the Jury with its celebration of the power of individuals to change society in small but effective ways. The unpretentiously simple presentation was a delight.
A Special mention goes to Russia for ‘i-city’. The ‘i-city’ takes a dialectic approach to Russia’s past, present and future and in the process turns us all into digital spies. The jury was drawn into this magical mystery tour and beguiled by its visual presentation.
A Special mention goes to Cino Zucchi for an installation which ‘aims to evoke a complex network of relationships that shape our physical environment’. The jury believes that this serves as an exemplary reminder of the all-embracing theme of the Common Ground Exhibition.
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