7 finalists for the Mies van der Rohe 2022 award revealed

The European Commission and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, have revealed the names of the seven finalists competing for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture 2022 – Mies van der Rohe Award, 5 in the Architecture category and 2 in the Emerging Architecture category. The Jury believes that the 7 finalist projects represent and promote models and reference points for local city policies. They address new management models based on community and circular processes of sustainability. The works focus on a productive and self-sufficient city that develops in a pedagogical way, ennobling the space we inhabit and use.

The five finalists for Architecture are: 

Z33 House for contemporary arts, design and architecture by Francesca Torzo. Z33 stands in continuity with the existing buildings around the beghinage, evoking the dual character of the façades, closed off from the street and open to the garden. The exhibition halls and secret gardens make up a labyrinth of spaces that combine memories of local passages with those of foreign villas or palaces.

85 Social Housing Unit by peris+toral.arquitectes. The basis of this new residential building consists of a matrix of communicating rooms without corridors to ensure optimal use of the floor and the use of wood to allow industrialisation of the elements. 

Frizz23 by Deadline (Britta Jürgens + Matthew Griffin). The architects adapted the Baugruppe model to create workspaces for the art, education and creative industries and took on the role of promoters to build the project’s community of users. 

La Ferme du Rail by Grand Huit and Mélanie Drevet Paysagiste. The project aims to integrate vulnerable people through a farm that offers 15 units of emergency social housing and reintegration, 5 units for students, a productive greenhouse, a restaurant, a mushroom farm and a permaculture garden. 

Town House Kingston University by Grafton Architects. Inspired by a progressive educational vision and a desire to reach out to the community, the project presents a three-dimensional matrix, a singular and complex space that links the different elements of the brief, giving each part its own identity

The two finalists for Emerging Architecture are: 

Scuola Enrico Fermi by BDR bureau. The project transforms a 1960s school, rethinking architecture through the participation of educational communities in defining pedagogical models, with the ambition of renewing both learning spaces and teaching methods. 

La Borda – Lacol building cooperative. A self-organisation project that provides access to decent, non-speculative housing. The cooperative has given priority to a building with minimal environmental impact, both in terms of construction and useful life.

The winners of the EU Mies Award 2022 will be announced at the end of April. In May, the selected works, including those of the winners and finalists, will open their doors to the public to be visited and to offer an in situ experience, together with the architects and all those involved in the organisation of the Award: OUT & ABOUT EU Mies Awards. The award ceremony will take place at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion on 12 May, in the framework of a series of debates and conferences aimed at all audiences. There will also be the presentation of the catalogue with the 532 projects nominated for the 2022 Award, an exhibition and an evening ceremony open to all. 

For further information please visit www.miesarch.com

Photo credits: JoseHevia (Social Housing Unit), Jan Bitter (Frizz23), Guillaume Bontemps (La Ferme du Rail), Dennis Gilbert (Town House Kingston University), Simone Bossi (Fermi School), Alice Clancy (La Borda)