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Laureates 1996 |
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Rafael MONEO, 1996 UIA Gold Medal
Jury citation:
National Museum of Roman Art in Merida
Rafael MONEO architectDuring his career of international renown, Rafael Moneo has devoted himself to architectural design and teaching architecture. His projects have enlightened the architectural profession by enhancing the urban context while preserving and respecting the existing environment.
Most of his works are woven into the city fabric and are an integral part of the life and daily space of the inhabitants. Rafael Moneo succeeds in creating a balance between tradition and innovation.
HIS CAREER AND WORK
The Spanish architect Jose Rafael Moneo is the fifth recipient of the UIA Gold Medal which will be officially presented to him on 4 July 1996 during the XIX UIA Congress in Barcelona.
Born in 1937, in Tudela (Spain), he studied at the Madrid School of Architecture from which he graduated in 1961. He worked with the Danish architect, Jorn Utzon (1961-1962), then spent two years at the Spanish Academy in Rome. He opened his own office in Madrid in 1965.
Amongst his main works are the Diestre Factory in Zaragoza (1965-1967), the headquarters of the Bankinter Bank in Madrid (1973-1976), the National Museum of Roman Art in Merida (1980-1984), the extension of the Atocha railway station in Madrid (1984-1992), the transformation of the ancient Villahermosa Palace in Madrid into the museum now housing the Thyssen Bornemisza collection (1989-1992) and the Pilar and Joan Miro Foundation in Palma de Mallorca (1987-1992).
Pilar and Joan Miro Foundation in Palma de Mallorca
Rafael MONEO architect.Outside Spain he has worked in the United States where he designed the Davis Art Museum of Wellesley College in Massachusetts (1989-1993), and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, presently under construction. In Sweden he designed the Stockholm Museum of Modern Art and Architecture, and in Berlin the Potzdammer Platz Hotel and an office block.
Since 1966, he has taught in various Spanish Schools of Architecture as well as in the United States where, from 1986 to 1990 he was chairman of the Architecture Department of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. His critical and theoretical work is internationally recognised and was first published in the Italian magazine, Lotus International and in the American Magazine Oppositions and then in the Spanish magazine Arquitectura Bis, of which he is one of the co-founders.
Rafael Moneo holds the Gold Medal for Fine Arts awarded by the Spanish Government. In 1993 he was awarded the Arnold W. Brunnner Memorial Prize for architecture by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Schock Prize by the Schock Foundation and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm.
1996 UIA PRIZE WINNERS
The UIA prizes, created in 1961, are awarded every three years during the UIA World Congress. They are of a thematic nature and are dedicated to the memory of the Union's first Presidents after whom they are name.
The Sir Patrick Abercrombie Prize, for town planning and territorial development;
The Auguste Perret Prize, for applied technology in architecture;
The Jean Tschumi Prize, or architectural criticism and/or architectural education;
The Sir Robert Matthew Prize, for the improvement in the quality of human settlements.
As for the Gold Medal, the jury met in Berlin, on 13 and 17 at the German Centre for Architecture (DAZ). It was composed of the members of the UIA Bureau: Jaime Duro Pifarre (Spain), President, Vassilis Sgoutas (Greece) Secretary General, Enrico Milone (Italy) Treasurer, and UIA Vice Presidents Gunnel Adlercreutz (Finland), Moshe Zarhy (Israel), Sara Topelson de Grinberg (Mexico), Kok Leong Chia (Singapore), Salah Zaky Said (Egypt).
1996 Sir Patrick Abercrombie Prize
This prize is awarded to the Mexican architect Juan Gil Elizondo for his leading action in the Xochimilco Ecological Rescue Programme created for the protection of the severely neglected traditional floating gardens, in Mexico
This programme is exemplary as a restoration of traditional ways of life and vernacular agriculture, transforming this deteriorated and polluted area into a vital and efficient agricultural system with clean air and water.
The skilful planning and restructuring of this vast territory is an example of ecological rescue and town planning on local and urban scale, taking into account the culture, way of life and traditions using today's technologies.
1996 Auguste Perret Prize
This prize is awarded to the German architect Thomas Herzog whose work is a research into the logic of form and organic reflection.
Amongst his numerous works may be cited a series of one-family bioclimatic houses, including the green houses in Berlin, for which the most advanced ideas for the management of energy and ecology have been developed, notably by means of glass lanterns which act as captors and provide interior lighting; the Linz Design Centre (1988-1993), and the extensions to the Wilkahn factories near Hanover (1989-1992).
For this architect large scale buildings are technological objects. Thomas Herzog very carefully analyses the effects of the latest technologies on construction and highlights the technical dimension. He has made unquestionable contributions in the field of wood construction and energy use, giving buildings a skeleton and a woven structure.
1996 Jean Tschumi Prize
Two ex-aequo prizes are awarded:
One to the British architect Peter Cook, one of the undisputed actors of the dynamism in architectural ideas since the sixties.
the other to the Chinese architect Liangyong Wu, founder in 1946, of the Department of Architecture of the University of Tsinghua, and creator of the first programme for landscape architecture in China. Professor Liangyong Wu is one of the most fervent defenders of the built heritage and of the conservation of natural resources in the P. R. of China.
Peter Cook enjoys significant influence on the international scene as an architectural critic. His determination, associated with his creativity, his open-mindedness and his capacity to prompt new ideas and promote new talents at home and abroad, make of him one of the leading figures of contemporary architectural criticism.
Architectural criticism and teaching are the inseparable tools for the promotion of architecture amongst professionals and the general public.
The jury decided to award two special mentions. One to the Japanese architectural editor Toshio Nakamura, the other to the Mexican editor COMEX.
1996 Sir Robert Matthew Prize
This prize was awarded to Professor Giancarlo De Carlo (Italy)
Giancarlo De Carlo, a figure of Italian and international architecture for the past forty years is remarkable for his qualities as a theoretician as much as a practitioner. He has taught the social understanding of the city and founded the International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design as a forum of ten universities to support this idea. His influence on architectural and town planning thinking is undisputed.
A special mention was awarded by the jury to the German team "Oberste Baubehörde", under the guidance of Benno Brugger of the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior and led by architect Hans Jörg Nussberger,
for its innovative and vaulable work and the creation of the barrier free approach integrating social housing programmes. The "Oberste Baubehörde" has shown the importance of good design and demonstrated that cost efficient construction can be combined with architectural quality as well as ecological and social awareness.
