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Berlin Beauty: Netherlands Embassy Wins Mies Prize

This coveted architectural honor is carried home by Germany's capital.

Stephen F. Milioti -- Interior Design, 4/21/2005 12:00:00 AM

The mammoth reunification process of Berlin continues, and one of the city’s newest landmarks received top honors last week for achievement in architecture and design. A group including Joan Clos, mayor of Barcelona and president of the Barcelona-based Fundacio Mies van der Rohe, announced the winner of the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture, otherwise known as the Mies van der Rohe Award 2005. The award went to the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, and architects Rem Koolhaas and Ellen van Loon, for their work on the Netherlands Embassy.

The embassy building was one of two buildings that entered the final deliberation phase. The jury, chaired by architect Zaha Hadid, also considered Braga Municipal Stadium, in Braga, Portugal, by architect Eduardo Souto de Moura. Both projects were applauded for establishing a memorable relationship to, and connection with, their surrounding environments. In the end, the nod went to the embassy--for the building’s "quality of urban reflection and intelligence, especially as regards to the unprecedented concept of ‘trajectory’ and the new potential it brings to this project of great complexity," according to an official statement. (In other words: they really liked it.)

Like all good award shows, this one honors young up-and-comers too--the year’s Emerging Architect Special Mention award went to Dutch firm NL Architects for their BasketBar at the University of Utrecht, in the Netherlands.