The jury appreciated not only the beauty and functionality of the architect's work, but also the role of the customer who supported the author of the project at all stages of the implementation of the idea. Chipperfield himself also noted the role of the museum leadership and the Berlin authorities, who actively participated in the process, despite the difficult situation - "a difficult climate of public opinion."
According to the architect, the museum, destroyed during the Second World War, should not have been restored in all the splendor of late classicism, but the traces of history should be preserved on its walls, and the missing parts should be filled with new ones - in the spirit of restrained neo-modernism. Not everyone in Germany agreed with this approach: it seemed to many that the faded murals and chipped flutes of the columns were a provocation or an eternal reproach that such a reminder of the war had no place in the center of Berlin. Nevertheless, the project was successfully implemented, and the popularity of the reconstructed museum even before filling it with exhibits showed that the result of Chipperfield's work was to the taste of the townspeople. The architect himself considers the New Museum to be the main work of his life.
For Chipperfield, the Mies van der Rohe Prize is a continuation of a string of awards: at the beginning of this year he was presented with the RIBA Gold Medal. She also marked the start of a successful month: in April, two of his art galleries are opening in England -
Turner Contemporary in Margate and Hepworth Wakefield in Yorkshire.
The award for young architects this year also went to the reconstruction - "Collage House" in Girona, Spain, by the bosch.capdeferro arquitectures bureau.
The awards ceremony will take place on June 20, 2011 at the German pavilion of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in Barcelona. The prize money for the winner will be 60,000 euros, and the prize-winning young architects - 20,000 euros. The organizer of the award is the European Commission, which considers architecture not only from a cultural, but also from a practical point of view: 8.5 million people are employed in this area in the EU countries, and it brings 4.5% of European GDP.
