result
best architects 21
award
Jury confers 11 golds
The final decisions on the «best architects 21 award» are in. With
almost 400 entries, the number of participants was higher than ever before. The
diversity and range of the projects submitted was impressive, but at the same
time a challenge for this year’s jury.
«It is exciting to see the vibrant
way in which architecture is developing. Architects are meeting new challenges
with a good deal of creativity and courage and are producing some surprising new
solutions as a result. Most are guided by a strong concept that goes beyond
formal approaches and does justice to the durability of the architecture and
the often changing use over time. That development was recognised with this
year’s award-winning projects.»
(Tobias Schwarzer, founder of the best architects award)
The
jury consisting of Professor Johannes Modersohn (Berlin), Yves Moreau (Paris) and Patrick Schmid (Zurich) honoured 80 projects with the best architects 21 award. An
additional 11 projects received the distinction best architects 21 in Gold for
their outstanding quality.
See the winners in the gallery here
«With almost 400 project entries, it is
not easy to set the evaluation criteria. The spectrum of submissions ranged
from the largely faithful renovation of a stellar architectural residential
building from the 1960s to an investors’ urban office complex and an architectural sculpture that ostensibly
has no function. Is it even possible to define criteria that allow for the
comparison of such diverse interventions? And whose achievement should win an
award? Of course, the best architects award is primarily aimed at architects,
but every architect knows that their work alone is not enough to create a good
building. The role that the developers and authorities play is just as
critical. A building of exceptional quality is therefore also always evidence
of the particularly constructive collaboration of all parties concerned.
If we now consider the results of our adjudication process, then it
is obvious that all the award-winning projects are characterised by exactly
that kind of interaction between all participants. But they not only satisfy
the original requirements by means a good compromise. Instead they manage to
achieve something at a higher level on the basis of strong ideas. These
projects thus make a contribution to our society.»
(Patrick
Schmid / Schmid Schärer Architekten, Zurich)