|
“New World Architecture” Tours the Old and New Worlds
Fifty-seven award-winning projects highlight cutting-edge design
Summary: Fifty-seven of the latest cutting-edge architecture projects from Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America are featured in “New World Architecture,” a traveling exhibition that opened in London in June and will travel to Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, and the U.S. in 2007 and 2008. "New World Architecture," curated by the Finnish architecture critic Christian K. Narkiewicz-Laine exhibits new works of architecture—from skyscrapers and urban planning projects to bridges and private residents—selected by a jury of Russian architects in Moscow earlier this year.
 Broad scope, wide appeal
All exhibited projects were awarded with the 2007 International Architecture
Award by the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design
through its prestigious annual awards program that honors the most
distinguished new global architecture. In all, 24 countries received
awards: Japan garnered the most, with nine. Germany and Italy received
six; the United Kingdom, five; Spain, four; Mexico, Austria, and
the U.S., three each; and Switzerland, China, and Saudi Arabia,
had two each. Ireland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Australia,
India, Denmark, South Korea, Egypt, South Africa, Singapore, Sweden,
and Israel/Jordan each had one awarded project. The total number
of countries with awarded projects was 24.
 "The wide geographic distribution of these awards attests to the importance of the program," Narkiewicz-Laine noted in a press release. "There is no one, single program that brings together the latest cutting-edge international architecture today as one cohesive universal representation or platform for world design. Our museum is honored to provide a focus that allows an exploration and analysis for current stylistic directions and philosophical thinking that is apparent in contemporary design today."
A good year for memorials
The Chicago Antheneum noted that “the architecture of the memorial
had a priority in this year’s awards with most of them commemorating
the highest of human tragedies and disasters. The most austere are
the Sachsenhausen Memorial “Station Z” by hg merz architekten
museumgestalter in Oranienburg, Germany, and the Bhopal Gas Tragedy
Memorial by Mathew Ghosh Architects Pvt. Ltd. in Bhopal, India. The
Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Foundation symbolizes something
entirely different memorializing the life of a humanist in the most
humane form. Bridging the Rift by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
on the Israel/Jordan border demonstrates that good architecture could
and should be the instrument of world peace.”
 The Awards Program
was open to all international architecture offices and U.S. firms
with projects outside the United States. U.S. submissions are judged
annually for "The American Architecture Award." The American
architects receiving 2007 International Architecture Awards and included
in the exhibition are:
- Ove Arup + Partners (UK/USA)
- Elliott + Associates Architects (USA)
- Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates PC. (UK/USA)
- Macrae-Gibson Architects (USA)
- Martha Schwartz Partners (USA)
- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLC. (UK/USA).
|
