Announcement of the 2022 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Awards Winner

Town House – Kingston University, London, by Grafton Architects, Dublin, is the 2022 Prize Winner. It is rewarded for its remarkable environmental quality that creates an excellent atmosphere for studying, gathering, dancing and being together. The building creates an emotional experience from within and through the multi-level façade colonnade that creates a domestic atmosphere on different levels. It accommodates dance, library and study spaces using layers of silence and layers of sound which work perfectly well together. This is the first time that a university building wins the architecture prize, and it shows the potential of public educational projects with the quality of this one, which dignifies people’s lives through education and togetherness and gives equal educational possibilities to everybody.
 
The 2022 Emerging Architecture Winner is the La Borda cooperative housing by Lacol in Barcelona. This cooperative project is transgressive in its context because although housing production is mainly dominated by macroeconomic interests, in this case, the model is based on co-ownership and co-management of shared resources and capacities. The model goes beyond the specific project of cooperative housing: the studio is also run as a cooperative where fourteen professionals with different expertise offer a role model and an active tool for promoting political and urban change from within the system, based on social, ecological and economic sustainability.
 
The Jury of the Prize highlights the importance of architecture that delves into the possibility of changing mindsets and policies and the relevance of inclusiveness.
 
The EUmies Awards Day that includes the awards ceremony, will take place on 12 May from 11:00 to 20:00 at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona. This open event will include:

• the Awards Ceremony at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, with Mayor of Barcelona, Mrs. Ada Colau, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mrs. Mariya Gabriel, and the President of Fundació Mies van der Rohe, Mrs. Janet Sanz.
   
• the “EUmies Awards 2022 exhibition” (1-12 May) with models, texts, videos, sketches and drawings of the 40 shortlisted works and a summary of all 532 nominees at ESklandestino, c/ Mèxic 3, Barcelona;
   
• the “EUmies Awards Talks” which will allow Winners, Finalists, Shortlisted, clients, architecture media and people interested in discussing on the emerging topics highlighted by the Jury;

The programme can be found here.

The Out & About programme, aimed at discovering architecture with the authors and promoters of the 40 shortlisted works who have been invited to organise events in their buildings and share their experiences with everybody. Boat rides, tours, lectures and discovering the backstage of buildings will allow everybody to discover what makes an architecture project. This programme is organised together with Guiding Architects, and it will take place during the whole month of May: Out&About.
 
The ‘EUmies Awards 2022’ exhibition will later embark on its tour around Europe with an opening in Cologne on 10 June with Baukultur Nordrhein-Westfalen; a venue at BOZAR, Brussels starting on 21 July; and a venue at the Architekturzentrum Wien in Vienna in October.
 
A photographic format of the ‘EUmies Awards 2022’ exhibition will take place at KU Leuven in the context of the New European Bauhaus Festival between 9 and 12 June with several conversations with alumni that have been part of the EUmies Awards, and a similar exhibition and a debate on Serbian architecture in the EUmies Awards will take place in Belgrade during the Belgrade International Architecture Week (BINA), that takes place from 26 May to 7 July.

Brussels, April 26, 2022