Under the terms of the award, it is not the architect who is awarded, but his specific project. In the case of Junya Ishigami, it was the water garden of the Art Biotop Nasu art residence in the Japanese prefecture of Tochigi: we wrote about it here. The essence of this work is to create a new eco-system where it was lost in the course of human agricultural activity: a forest reappeared many years ago on a cleared field. Moreover: the trees that made it up were saved from felling - they were transplanted from a neighboring plot, where the construction of a hotel was planned.
The Obel Prize, at the request of its founder, Henrik Frode Obel (1942–2014), celebrates innovative, landmark works of architecture and also addresses a specific theme. This, for the first time, the motto was "social well-being by means of architecture", so the choice of the Ishigami water garden is somewhat unexpected. However, the jury members explain this by the social importance of the topic that the Japanese architect touched upon. This fusion of architecture and ecology opens up new ways for the interaction and coexistence of nature and man - her innovation in this, as well as in the technically complex process of replanting trees and creating reservoirs according to a well-thought-out plan. The terms of the award also presuppose the connection of the project with nature and significant emotional content: all this is quite present in the project for Art Biotop Nasu.
Jury Chair, Landscape Architect Martha Schwartz emphasized Ishigami's combination of landscape, architecture and art, moving away from the traditional understanding of volumetric design towards creating space. Also among the experts were the head of Henning Larsen Architects Louis Becker, the co-founder of Snøhetta Hjetil Thorsen and the German philosopher Wilhelm Vossenkul.
The Henrik Frode Obel Foundation supports the development of architecture: in the form of student grants for study trips, regular symposia, and now a prize almost equal in generosity to Pritzkerovskaya with her $ 100,000 prize (who has more prize money depends on the current exchange rate of the euro to the US dollar). Obel himself came from a famous Danish family of entrepreneurs, whose history dates back to the end of the 18th century. However, he made his fortune on his own, having lived all his life abroad in Denmark, and therefore his foundation is aimed at the international development of architecture and at expanding the horizon of young Danish architects. It is interesting that the Obel family foundation, which has existed since 1953, supports only “its own”, primarily the members of this family and the inhabitants of North Jutland.
An architect from any country in the world can apply for the Obel Prize, but one cannot nominate oneself, the lists of candidates are drawn up by some "scouting" experts whose names have not been disclosed.
