The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the winners of its annual awards. A total of 89 buildings were noted in the United Kingdom and 8 in the rest of Europe. All of them will be eligible for the title of "Build of the Year" - the Sterling Prize, awarded every fall. In addition, 13 facilities outside the EU were awarded special international awards, including Zaha Hadid's Guangzhou Opera House and John McAslan's Stanislavsky Factory Business Center in Moscow.
The National Design Award of the USA, awarded by the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, traditionally recognized architects in three categories. For architecture itself, the award was received by the New York Architecture Research Office (ARO), which develops the traditions of modernism in the 21st century, and for landscape architecture - Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, the American workshop of Catherine Gustafson, one of the leaders of the profession.
The ceremony of awarding the Pritzker Prize was held on June 2 at the White House in Washington: Barack Obama officially congratulated the laureate, Portuguese architect Eduardo Souta de Moura. In his speech, he mentioned that he dreamed of becoming an architect, but in the end “turned out to be less creative than expected,” and therefore took up politics. In addition, he once again emphasized the merits of the Pritzker family in the cause of charity (among other things, they financed his election campaign).
Almost simultaneously in Great Britain, the Royal Academy admitted Ai Weiwei to its foreign members: despite the official absence of political overtones, this step cannot but be regarded as a gesture of solidarity with the imprisoned Chinese artist: many such actions have taken place since his arrest in early April in all countries the world.
Last month, the fate of Ai Weiwei himself became somewhat clearer. For a month and a half it was not known where he was being held and what exactly he was accused of, but in mid-May he was allowed to meet with his wife. According to her, he is not in prison, but in a certain apartment (?), Through which he is allowed to move. It is not only heavily guarded, but also provides the necessary medical assistance (the 53-year-old artist has hypertension and diabetes).
At the Venice Art Biennale, a joint exposition of OMA and the Prada fashion house has opened, dedicated to their joint projects, in particular, the Fondazione Prada complex in Milan, whose construction is to begin soon. The exposition was designed by Rem Koolhaas himself. At the same time, the architects of OMA collaborated with the State Hermitage in the preparation of another exhibition of the Biennale - a retrospective of Dmitry Prigov in the Palazzo Ca Foscari.
An opening day was also held in the north of Europe: a permanent installation by Olafur Eliasson “Your rainbow panorama” was opened on the roof of the art museum in the Danish city of Aarhus. It is a ring-shaped platform, through the glass walls painted in the colors of the spectrum, views of the city open up.
Iraqi media reports that the mayor of Baghdad is planning to convert Zaha Hadid's home into a museum. The mansion will be bought by the state from private owners as an object of cultural heritage, since Hadid's merit in increasing the prestige of his native country in the Arab world and on the world stage is very great, according to the mayor's office of the Iraqi capital.
But not everyone so readily recognizes the status of a monument for the buildings: UNESCO advisers have recommended this organization once again to reject the application for the inclusion of a series of 19 buildings by Le Corbusier in the World Heritage List. In their opinion, the great architect is not the only one who contributed to the development of modern architecture. However, this list, which does not even include Chandigarh, has long included Brasilia, the Tugendhata villa in Brno and the Luis Barragan workshop complex in Mexico City.
N. F.
