Seventh Edition 2019-2020

The seventh edition of the Swiss Architectural Award

The studio Bruther (France), founded by Stéphanie Bru and Alexandre Theriot, is the winner of the seventh edition of the Swiss Architectural Award, a biennial international architecture prize promoted since 2019 by the Fondazione Teatro dell’architettura, which gathered the legacy of BSI Architectural Foundation.

The seventh edition of the award brought together the three Swiss Schools of Architecture: Università della Svizzera italiana – Academy of Architecture; EPF Lausanne – ENAC, Section d’Architecture, ETH Zurich – Departement Architektur, represented on the jury chaired by Mario Botta. The Award benefits from the organizational support of the Università della Svizzera italiana – Academy of Architecture.

With this new cooperation, which reaffirms the Award’s national importance, the Swiss Architectural Award confirms it is one of the best endowed and most prestigious architectural awards, by virtue of an advisory committee consisting of internationally renowned architects and critics.

The Swiss Architectural Award aims to promote a kind of architecture that is sensitive to contemporary ethical, aesthetic and ecological issues and can facilitate public debate. The prize is awarded to architects not older than 50 years (in the year in which the Award is launched), without distinction of nationality, who have completed at least three significant works.

The prize, which amounts to CHF 100,000, will be presented to the winner on 1st April 2021 at the Auditorium of the Teatro dell’architettura, Università della Svizzera italiana, Mendrisio, during a ceremony which will also mark the opening of the exhibition of the works submitted by the candidates and the presentation of the volume Swiss Architectural Award 2019-2020 (Mendrisio Academy Press-Silvana editoriale).

Bruther was selected among 33 candidates from 19 countries, thus winning the edition with the largest number of participants since the award was established in 2007, a fact which reaffirms the function of seismograph of the most fruitful contemporary experiences, which the Swiss Architectural Award aims to fulfil, thanks to the excellence of the committee of advisors who nominate the candidates.

The jury was chaired by Mario Botta and composed by Riccardo Blumer (Director of the Accademia di architettura, USI), João Luís Carrilho da Graça (Lisboa), Dieter Dietz (director of the Section d’Architecture, EPFL-ENAC) and Christophe Girot (dean of the Departement Architektur, ETHZ).

The 2020 candidates for the Swiss Architectural Award were nominated by a committee of advisor comprising of Manuel Aires Mateus, Lisboa (Portugal); Solano Benitez, Asunción (Paraguay); Angelo Bucci, São Paulo (Brazil); Marianne Burkhalter, Zurich (Switzerland); Sean Godsell, Melbourne (Australia); Steven Holl, New York (USA); Junya Ishigami, Tokyo (Japan); Bijoy Jain, Mumbai (India); Shelley McNamara, Dublin (Ireland); Valerio Olgiati, Flims (Switzerland); Adolph Stiller, Vienna (Austria); Elisa Valero, Granada (Spain); Paolo Zermani, Parma (Italy).

The candidates at the 2020 edition of the Swiss Architectural Award were: Al Borde (Pascual Gangotena, David Barragán, Marialuisa Borja, Esteban Benavides; Ecuador); Arrhov Frick (Johan Arrhov, Henrik Frick, Sweden); Bernardo Bader (Austria); Barbas Lopes Arquitectos (Patricia Barbas, Diogo Lopes, Portugal); Tatiana Bilbao (Mexico); Bruther (Stéphanie Bru, Alexandre Theriot, France); Riccardo Butini (Italy); Carmody Groarke (Kevin Carmody, Andy Groarke, England); Ricardo Carvalho (Portugal); Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury (Bangladesh); DECA Architecture (Alexandros Vaitsos, Carlos Loperena, Greece); Angela Deuber (Switzerland); Edition Office (Kim Bridgland, Aaron Roberts, Australia); Estudio MMX (Jorge Arvizu, Ignacio del Rio Emmanuel Ramirez, Diego Ricalde, Mexico), Nick Gelpi (USA); Guidotti Architetti (Giacomo Guidotti, Riccarda Guidotti, Switzerland); Carla Juaçaba (Brazil); langarita-navarro arquitectos (Maria Langarita, Victor Navarro, Spain); MAPA (Luciano Rocha de Andrades, Matías Carballal Zeballos, Andrés Gobba Hannay, Maurício Lopez Franco, Silvio Lagranha Machado, Brazil); Shingo Masuda and Katsuhisa Otsubo (Japan); Daniel Moreno Flores (Ecuador); Erika Nakagawa (Japan); OFFICE (Kersten Geers, David Van Severen, Belgium); Camilo Rebelo (Portugal); Robust Architecture Workshop (Milinda Pathiraja, Ganga Ratnayake, Sri Lanka); Sabin Blanco Architects (Patricia Sabín Díaz, Enrique M. Blanco Lorenzo, Spain); SIAA_ (Cesar Shundi Iwamizu, Brazil); Taylor and Hinds Architects (Poppy Taylor, Mat Hinds, Australia); Ted’A Arquitectes (Irene Perez Piferrer, Jaume Mayol Amengual, Spain); Terra+Tuma (Danilo Terra, Fernanda Sakano, Pedro Tuma, Juliana Terra, Brazil); Francesca Torzo (Italy); Christian Wassmann (USA); Xu Tiantian (DnA Design and Architecture, China).