Architectures on the Waterfront – Mies van der Rohe Award

The Fundació Mies van der Rohe in collaboration with Arquitectes per l’Arquitectura (AxA) inaugurate today the exhibition “Architectures on the waterfront” at the Maritime Museum of Barcelona. The exhibition is dedicated to waterfronts and those architectures located in urban areas next to water, spaces that over the last thirty years have undergone important urban regeneration processes redesigning in many cases the form and functions of the city on the waterfront.

The exhibition has been curated by Francesc Muñoz, PhD in Urban Geography and Director of the Observatory of Urbanization (UAB) who has contributed with his critical re-reading of the Archive of the Prize, as he also did with the Atlas of European Contemporary Architecture (2016) and his research on the transformation of waterfronts and the effect of urbanalization, a term coined by him; and Ivan Blasi and Anna Sala Giralt of the Fundació Mies van der Rohe.

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The exhibition emanates from 68 works belonging to the archive of the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award (EU Mies Award) and narrates through images, audiovisuals and models the particular stories of these architectures that construct new areas of relationship with water in cities such as Paris, Copenhagen, Madrid, Lisbon, Oslo, Donostia/San Sebastian or Barcelona.

At present, the archive of the EU Mies Award has a selection of 3,618 works and more than 500 original models. It is a unique compilation that allows us to research, analyse and explain the main phenomena of change in European architecture through different readings, and generate publications such as the ATLAS or exhibitions such as the one presented now at the Maritime Museum, or “Spanish Architectures” which was presented last year in Madrid.

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Among the 68 selected works of “Architectures on the waterfront” there are 4 winners of the EU Mies Award: The French National Library by Dominique Perrault architecte (1996 – Paris), the Kursaal by Rafael Moneo (2001 – Donostia/San Sebastian), the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet by Snohetta (2009 – Oslo) and the Harpa Auditorium and Congress Centre by Henning Larsen Architects, Studio Olafur Eliasson and Batteríid Architects (2013 – Reykjavik).

This selection bears witness to how the transformation of waterfronts has been fundamental both in large metropolises and in small urban centres. Beyond this selection of exhibited works, all the works that build up the archive can be critically read both online (www.eumiesaward.com), the ATLAS and the App. On the occasion of this exhibition, the “Architectures on the waterfront” section has been created in the App as a way to stimulate the visit to these works. Source and photos Courtesy of Fundació Mies van der Rohe.

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