EU Mies Award Postponed One Year

John Hill

11. novembre 2020

Transformation of 530 Dwellings - Grand Parc Bordeaux won the most recent European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award, in 2019. (Photo: Philippe Ruault)

The European Commission and Fundació Mies van der Rohe have announced that the next European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award will be postponed until 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

If the previous EU Mies Award, held in 2019, is an accurate indication, the finalists for the next biennial award would be announced next February, requiring the jury to then visit each of the handful of buildings spread across Europe before the winner would be announced in April. But given the current spread of COVID-19 across the continent, "this does not seem possible to happen during the first months of 2021," per Anna Ramos, director of Fundació Mies van der Rohe.

Instead, the 2022 iteration will be divided into two phases, with the first list of nominated projects (for projects already submitted) announced in January 2021 and a second list of nominated projects made later in the year. The first list will include buildings completed between October 2018 and October 2020, and the second list will expand the award to include buildings completed between November 2020 and April 2021.

The normal schedule of finalists announced in February and the winner announced in April would happen like before, but in 2022 instead of 2021. A helpful graphic from the EU Mies Award illustrates the revised timeline:

Click to enlarge

New Calendar (courtesy the EU Mies Award):

January 2021: announcement of the EU Mies Award 2022 works nominated in the first phase
September 2021: announcement of the EU Mies Award 2022 works nominated in the second phase
January 2022: announcement of the Shortlisted Works
February 2022: announcement of the 5 Finalist Works
April 2022: announcement of the Winners
May 2022: EU Mies Award Day with the Awards ceremony, exhibition and visits to shortlisted works; presentation of publication and start of the traveling exhibition (first to Vienna)