Edition 1992

Mies van der Rohe Pavilion Award for European Architecture 1992. Act of the Jury

On October 23, 1992, the Jury of the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion Award for European Architecture 1992 met in Brussels.

The Jury, presided over by British architect, Norman Foster, was composed of architects, Henri E. Ciriani (France), Kenneth Frampton (United Kingdom), Herman Hertzberger (The Netherlands), Henning Larsen (Denmark), Álvaro Siza Vieira (Portugal), Ignasi de Solà-Morales (Spain), Francis Strauven (Belgium), and Elia Zenghelis (Greece). The Director of the Fundacio Mies van der Rohe-Barcelona, Lluís Hortet, acted as secretary, with no intervening powers.

After an extensive debate, the Jury made a restricted selection of 30 candidates from which the winner was chosen. The Jury then proceeded to the election of the awarded project.

After a succession of votes, the Jury decided by majority vote, to award this year's prize to the Municipal Sports Stadium of Badalona, Spain designed by Esteve Bonell and Francesc Rius.

The Jury felt that this building is particularly distinguished by making a contribution on three levels at once. Firstly because it simultaneously establishes both the presence of a public building and the boundary of a clear public space within a semi-urban peripheral context that is still rather ill formed. Secondly it gives a totally fresh interpretation to a rather fixed building type in such a way as to afford it a clear public entry and axis while at the same time, maintaining convenient entries all around its perimeter.

Finally, it articulates the long span structure of the roof in such a way as to reflect simultaneously both the major and the minor axes of the elliptical arena; the long tubular member uniting the cable braced trusses of the cross section.

Further to this the building is very well articulated over a wider scalar range, passing from the trussed structure of the monitor roof; to the delicate detailing of the open air loggia; and from the precise coursing of the stone cladding and the paving of the piazza; to the precision of the balustrading throughout.

In all this great care has been devoted to the tectonic probity of the work as a whole and above all to the durability of the fabric as a permanent public institution.

The Award will be granted by the EEC Cultural Commissioner and the Mayor of Barcelona in a ceremony to take place on November 14, 1992, in the German Pavilion of Barcelona of Mies van der Rohe.

Brussels, October 23, 1992