Zumtobel Launch International Architecture Award For 2021
Awards November 27, 2020 TiL Editors
- The Zumtobel Group Award encourages pioneering developments to enhance quality of life and sustainability in the built environment
- Public call for submissions from 25 September 2020 to 15 March 2021
- International jury with experts from various disciplines
- Curated by the Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin
- Award will be offered in the two categories Buildings and Urban Developments & Initiatives
- Additional chance to win a Special Prize for Innovation
Dornbirn, Austria – The Zumtobel Group is once again calling for entries for its international architecture award, held in 2021. The “Zumtobel Group Award – Innovations for Sustainability and Humanity in the Built Environment” promotes pioneering concepts and developments for more quality of life and sustainability in the built environment and its design. With the architecture award’s two categories the Zumtobel Group addresses core issues of our age, such as how best to deal with our finite resources, opportunities for repurposing existing buildings, sustainable development concepts for urban and rural space, utilisation of new materials and innovative processes, and the central question of humane living conditions.
Between 25 November 2020 and 15 March 2021, architecture and engineering firms, urban and landscape planners, universities and technology companies, NGOs, and public or private initiatives can submit their current projects. The public online application form is available under the following link: https://zumtobel-group-award.submit.to/register/
“Limited resources and, on the other hand, strong population growth in emerging countries, increasing levels of traffic, climate change and natural disasters, rural exodus and urban sprawl present major challenges for all of us, which can only be met by working collectively. We see architects, urban planners and civil engineers as holistic designers playing a decisive part in developing approaches and solutions for an environment worth living in. With the Zumtobel Group Award, we want to promote an interdisciplinary exchange; the award is intended to serve as a public platform for forward-looking concepts and to encourage open dialogue on new approaches.”
Alfred Felder, CEO Zumtobel Group and member of the Zumtobel Group Award’s jury
Top-class international jury
The jury – consisting of internationally renowned experts from various disciplines – will nominate five projects from the shortlist for each category in September 2021 and select a winner from each of these. In addition, the jury will award the Special Prize for Innovation. The announcement of the winners will take place in autumn 2021.
The jury for the 2021 Zumtobel Group Award consists of the following members, sorted in alphabetical order:
- Liz Diller, architect and founding partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, USA
- Alfred Felder, CEO Zumtobel Group, Austria
- Francine Houben, architect, founding partner of and creative director at Mecanoo, Netherlands.
- Zhang Ke, architect and founder of ZAO/standardarchitecture, China
- Dorte Mandrup, architect, founder of and creative director at Dorte Mandrup A/S, Denmark
- Tobias Nolte, architect, founding partner of the design studio Certain Measures, Germany/USA
- Werner Sobek, architect and engineer, founder of the Werner Sobek AG, Germany
- Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, architect and founding partner of Snøhetta, Norway
Affiliated with the award: the curators
Dr. h.c. Kristin Feireiss and Hans-Jürgen Commerell from the Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin have been curators of the Zumtobel Group Award since its launch in 2007, and have played a major role in establishing the prize as an international standard in the fields of architecture, design, urban planning and engineering for just over a decade.
“The announcement of the Zumtobel Group Award 2021 comes at a particularly difficult time for all of us, in which the society, the economy and politics around the world are tremendously challenged by the COVID 19 pandemic. This makes us all the more pleased with the decision to invite entries for the award again, as the crisis has emphasized the importance of the award’s parameters – innovation, humanity and sustainability. The award, as well as the attention towards the challenges facing the design of current and future living environments is growing. Over the years we have continuously adapted the parameters of the award to the ever-expanding technological possibilities. In addition to the two main categories, the Zumtobel Group Award 2021 will include a Special Prize for Innovation,” said the curators Dr. h.c. Kristin Feireiss and Hans-Jürgen Commerell from Aedes Architecture Forum, Berlin.
The award categories are represented by the Zumtobel Group brands
The two categories announced for the Zumtobel Group Award 2021 as well as the Special Prize for Innovation are each represented by one of the Group’s three core brands: the Buildings category by the Zumtobel brand, Urban Developments & Initiatives by Thorn, and the Innovation Prize by Tridonic, the technology subsidiary of the Zumtobel Group.
A Zumtobel Group Award’s first – the Special Prize for Innovation
For the first time, the 2021 Award also includes a Special Prize for Innovation. Projects in both categories can qualify for this award if they stimulate outstanding innovation or intelligent, imaginative solutions in the built environment or urban infrastructure that serve human needs and reduce environmental impact at the same time. With the new addition of the special prize, the Zumtobel Group is sending a signal of its appreciation of interdisciplinary and forward-looking research work.
The Zumtobel Group Award 2021 at a glance:
Call for submissions
From 25 November 2020 to 15 March 2021 via the following link:
https://zumtobel-group-award.submit.to/register/
Award website: z.lighting/zumtobel-group-award
Initiator
The Zumtobel Group with its brands Thorn, Tridonic and Zumtobel
z.lighting/group
Curator
Dr. h.c. Kristin Feireiss and Hans-Jürgen Commerell, Aedes Architecture Forum, Berlin
www.aedes-arc.de
Award categories
Buildings 50,000 EUR
Urban Developments & Initiatives 50,000 EUR
Special Prize for Innovations 20,000 EUR
Participation is free.
Timeline
Preliminary Jury: June 2021
Final Jury: September 2021
Announcement: Autumn 2021
Award Ceremony: Autumn 2021
About the categories
Buildings (Zumtobel)
This category is dedicated to architecturally outstanding buildings or complexes realised within the last four years (15 January 2017 until 15 March 2021). The winning submission will constitute an innovative, sustainable and socially beneficial contribution to the built environment. Applying the latest technologies, new materials and creative design concepts, it will lead to a distinct improvement in the quality of life. The award will go to an implemented building or complex of exceptional architectural merit, but also includes projects dealing with the re-use, conservation or refurbishment of existing structures or the addition of new components.
Urban Developments & Initiatives (Thorn)
This category is dedicated to projects on an urban scale: city development/planning strategies, master plans, public space projects and landscape architecture. It also includes ongoing research projects and social initiatives in an urban context. The award targets innovative urban developments that are in progress or have been realised in the last four years (15 January 2017 until 15 March 2021) as well as ongoing research into the improved implementation of sustainability and humanity. Aiming to encourage an emerging generation of researchers and practitioners in architecture and urban design, the award in this category seeks to facilitate and promote inventive urban projects.
Special Prize for Innovations (Tridonic)
Projects in both categories can qualify for this award if they stimulate outstanding innovation or intelligent, imaginative solutions in the built environment or urban infrastructure that serve human needs and reduce environmental impact at the same time. With the new addition of the special prize, the Zumtobel Group is sending a signal of its appreciation of interdisciplinary and forward-looking research work. Technological innovations can be new materials, sensors, intelligent control systems, renewable energy or intelligent networking of the various trades such as HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) and lighting. The award also recognises initiatives to activate the society’s need to address urban challenges in a more efficient and intelligent way. This may include new practices or inventive methods to optimise (building) processes and mechanisms.
The winning projects from the previous awards:
2017
2007
About the Aedes Architecture Forum:
The Aedes Architecture Forum is a world-renown independent institution and exhibition space for the international communication of contemporary architecture and urban design. Established in 1980 as the first private architecture gallery in Europe, the Aedes Architecture Forum has gained a large international partnership network, which feeds to an outstanding cultural platform for the global and public discourse of the built environment. Founded by Kristin Feireiss and Helga Retzer († 1984), Aedes is co-directed by Hans-Jürgen Commerell since 1994. As one of its kind Aedes served as a prototypical model for many architecture-museums and similar institutions established later.