Neues Museum beats Acropolis Museum
Berlin?s Neues Museum was awarded the 2011 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture, also known as the Mies van der Rohe Award. The coveted prize was bestowed to leading British architect Sir David Chipperfield for his firm?s work on the museum?s renovation, and the award ceremony took place at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona, Spain, on June 20.
Among the competition?s finalists were the architects of the New Acropolis Museum, Switzerland?s Bernard Tschumi and his Greek associate Michalis Fotiadis. The Athens institution celebrated its second anniversary on June 20 and has been on the receiving end of various awards, among them the 2011 Honor Award for Architecture from the American Institute of Architects.
The EU?s annual contemporary architecture competition drew 343 submissions from 33 European countries. Besides the Neues Museum and the Acropolis Museum, the finalists included the Bronks Youth Theater in Brussels (designed by Martine De Maeseneer and Dirk Van den Brande); MAXXI: Museum of XXI Century Arts in Rome (designed by Zaha Hadid, Patrick Schumacher and Gianluca Racana); the Danish Radio Concert House in Copenhagen (designed by Jean Nouvel) and the Groot Klimmendaal Rehabilitation Center in Arnhem, The Netherlands (designed by Koen van Velsen).
