Swiss architect Angela Deuber wins the third edition of the arcVision Prize – Women and Architecture.
Honorable mentions go to Kate Otten (South Africa), Patama Roonrakwit (Thailand), and Samira Rathod (India).
Fondazione Pesenti supports the arcVision Prize – Women and Architecture, which since 2013 awards female architecture and on the occasion of the Universal Exposition in Milan presented the special WE-Women for Expo prize to Paula Nascimento, designer of the Angola Pavilion at Expo 2015.
Bergamo, March 6, 2015 – Angela Deuber is the winner of the third edition of the arcVision Prize – Women and Architecture, an international prize for female architects. In the jury’s motivation for awarding the prize, it was stated: “Angela Deuber is one of the youngest nominees in this edition. We recognize in her work new directions for architecture that successfully combine important aspects for the structural research of construction and the use of materials, together with the involvement and commitment to a decisive social role for women architects.”
The Swiss architect, born in 1975, was chosen after two days of work and discussion by a jury composed again this year of outstanding professionals in both architectural and socio-economic fields: Shaikha Al Maskari (member of the Board of Directors of the Arab International Women’s Forum – AIWF), Vera Baboun (Mayor of Bethlehem), Odile Decq (head of the Odile Decq architecture firm),
Yvonne Farrell (founding partner of Grafton Architects), Louisa Hutton (founding partner of Sauerbruch Hutton architecture firm), Suhasini Mani Ratnam (Indian actress, producer, and writer), Samia Nkrumah (President of the Kwame Nkrumah Pan-African Center), Benedetta Tagliabue (head of Miralles Tagliabue EMBT studio), Martha Thorne (director of the Pritzker Prize, the “Nobel” of architecture).
The arcVision Prize aims to highlight ideas and projects with a strong imprint of innovation and functionality, which are at the same time sustainable and socially significant. The emphasis is on the ‘female’ vision of architecture in order to regenerate and design existing and future architectures.
“In the year that Milan hosts the Universal Exposition,” says Carlo Pesenti, President of the Foundation, “arcVision Prize wanted to involve the Ambassadors of WE-Women for Expo in the third edition of its Architecture prize, convinced that ‘good architecture’ is made of creative and technical skills, but also of imagination, feelings, and heart. Qualities that women know how to enhance, filling their daily activity with meaning and sensitivity, whether it is acting, practicing sports, running a business, or designing a new building .
“arcVision Prize – continues Pesenti “wants to reward innovative, sustainable, and social ideas and projects, focused on the beauty and functionality of building and living. The prize aims to bring to the forefront that ‘female’ vision of architecture capable of combining technology and environment, materials and form, style and efficiency in the regeneration of cities and territory .”
“I am very happy, and I say this without rhetoric, to participate in this third edition of the arcVision Prize,” said Diana Bracco, President of Expo Milano 2015 and Commissioner of the Italian Pavilion. “ Quality excellence, creative ability, attention to sustainability, also taking into account the social and cultural implications of the working context: this is the spirit that animates the very talented architects engaged in this competition, and this is the spirit that will also animate the Expo.
Cutting-edge architecture will not only characterize the Italy Pavilion: great star architects have signed many of the other participants’ pavilions, and also for this reason our Exposition will be remembered as one of the most fascinating and innovative: many countries decided to merge in the very shapes of the buildings their own landscapes and food traditions, in line with the theme ‘Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.”
From many shared values, the collaboration with WE-Women for Expo was born, a project of Expo Milano 2015 in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Arnoldo and Alberto Mondadori Foundation.
“The commitment of arcVision Prize – Women and Architecture,” declares Marta Dassù, Executive President of WE-Women for Expo, “represents an important example of valorizing female talent in architecture that WE-Women for Expo strongly supports.
Moreover, arcVision Prize – Women and Architecture promotes dialogue among different professional fields on an international scale, a crucial factor that is the basis of the WE-Women for Expo project.”
SPECIAL WE-WOMEN FOR EXPO PRIZE TO PAULA NASCIMENTO
During the evening, arcVision Prize, which this year was enriched by the collaboration with WE-Women for Expo, the Expo Milano 2015 project aimed at creating a global network of women to Feed the Planet, awarded Paula Nascimento, an emerging figure in contemporary architecture and designer of the Angola Pavilion at Expo 2015.
Present at the award ceremony were Albina Assis Pereira Africano (General Commissioner of Angola and President of the Steering Committee of the General Commissioners at Expo 2015), H.E. Florencio Mariano da Conceicao de Almeida (Angolan Ambassador to Italy), and Luís Eugenio Saraiva de Carvalho (First Secretary of the Angolan Embassy in Italy).
The award was presented by the ambassador of WE-Women for Expo, Arianna Fontana, young short track skater, winner of one silver and four bronze Olympic medals and the 2012 Short Track World Cup in the 500 meters specialty.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Important numbers for this third edition: 50 applications, a shortlist of 21 female architects from 16 countries – all continents represented: Spain, India, Mexico, Italy, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, USA, Japan, Egypt, South Africa, Thailand, Morocco, Australia, Greece, Jordan.
The jury, coordinated during the working sessions by Stefano Casciani, Scientific Director of the Prize, also awarded honorable mentions to Kate Otten (South Africa), Patama Roonrakwit (Thailand), and Samira Rathod (India).
Kate Otten (South Africa)
The goal of the arcVision Prize is to enhance the role of women in the current global architectural landscape, with particular attention to the qualities a contemporary female architect must possess to approach her profession with originality, in search of advanced and unconventional solutions, and with a deeper, more mature sensitivity to human and social contexts.
The selection of the finalists was made among professionals nominated by an international group of Advisors and then evaluated by a technical-cultural Commission, to define the final shortlist and submit it to the judgment of the jury.
The architects nominated to compete for the final Prize must have designed and be the authors/co-authors of at least one work (built or in the final executive design phase) in which substantially innovative solutions and values emerge from a functional and technological point of view, with particular attention to sustainability issues.
arcVision Prize thus intends to bring to light the most interesting female architects present on the international scene.
The Prize consists of a two-week research project and workshop (during Milan Design Week, April 2015). An economic award (€50,000) is also granted, with the winner authorized to allocate part of it to social project initiatives of her choice.
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