A foundation recognising and rewarding architecture’s potential to act as tangible agents of change.

AWARD CEREMONY 2019

With the project Art Biotop Water Garden, the first OBEL AWARD sets a high standard and firmly establishes the goal of the new award: to push the boundaries of architecture.

Junya Ishigami received the inaugural OBEL AWARD on 22 October at the Utzon Center in Aalborg on behalf of his practice Junya Ishigami & Associates.

The project Art Biotop Water Garden in Tochigi, Japan, was chosen unanimously by the jury. The unusual choice for an architectural award firmly establishes the overall ambition with the newly founded OBEL AWARD.

»We search for influential ideas that can redefine the course of the future of architecture, said Martha Schwarz, chair of the jury, in her speech.

The winning project distinctly demonstrates such new ideas, she explained:

»A highly man-made and yet natural composition – it is impossible to categorize this as a piece of architecture, as landscape architecture, or as art. What are its boundaries? Its rules? This project connects with us through our emotions, by which we are ruled far more than by our logic. It is a bridge between humans and nature. I see this project as hope that we can rediscover our connection to nature, nurture it, and design within its limits.«

In his acceptance speech, Ishigami emphasized the increasingly global reality of the 21st century and explained how architecture must respond to the new diversity of values.

»The effects of human activities are beyond the scale of cities and are getting so vast that they are affecting the natural environments of the entire globe. I therefore believe that we architects today must comprehend architecture on a planetary scale, or rather on a natural scale, in contrast to the architects of yesterday who comprehended architecture on a city scale.

People who live in different regions and cultures with different religions and history obviously have different values. The role of architects in the 21st century is to suggest infinite ways for architecture to correspond to the infinite values of many people around the world,« he said.

Ishigami received a unique work of art by artist Tomás Saraceno, which has been designed specifically for the first OBEL AWARD winner.

I believe that in the future, the OBEL AWARD will become a tradition and a well-known award in the world

»Being the very first winner of the award, I am grateful and truly honoured. Not only is it an encouragement for myself, but I understand that the OBEL AWARD has indeed been invented in search of new possibilities in the realm of architecture. I believe that in the future, the OBEL AWARD will become a tradition and a well-known award in the world,« he said.

Winners of the OBEL AWARD are expected to give a masterclass which is open to the public, and Junya Ishigami held a lecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (KADK) in Copenhagen on 23 October.

OBEL AWARD ceremony in Paris

International architects and politicians came together on 21 October in Paris to pay tribute to Professor Carlos Moreno who received the third ever OBEL AWARD for his work on the 15-minute city.

Nearly 500 people, including Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and other leading politicians as well as the global press, participated in the OBEL AWARD ceremony held on 21 October at the Hôtel de Ville of Paris – the seat of the Paris City Council since 1357 and the scene of numerous important historical and political events.

The event in Paris was representative of the OBEL AWARD and its vision in bringing together politicians, architects, and other professionals from all over the world in a solemn but also action-oriented celebration of cities, of new urban thinking, and of global political action.

In the grand, neo-renaissance Salle des Fêtes, Professor Carlos Moreno accepted the OBEL AWARD 2021 for his urban concept ‘The 15-minute city’, which envisions a truly liveable and sustainable urban future that places each global citizen at the heart of their own city.

“As a jury, we’re asked to award pioneering works and groundbreaking efforts within the many fields of architecture, including urban planning and landscape architecture, which are in service of the people,” said Martha Schwartz, Chair of the OBEL AWARD Jury, in her speech.

“The 15-minute city provides an urban environment that is planned FOR the people, shifting the focus back to the individual human being and to quality of life. It supports the idea of community, membership, and belonging.

The 15-minute city also addresses the largest, most difficult problem facing humanity, which is how to protect our global cities in the face of climate change. The 15-minute city is a simple, but RADICAL idea for how we can re-spatialize our existing cities and plan and design new cities for the future,” she added.

“This event gives us the opportunity to highlight the central role of architecture in improving our quality of life.”

– Anne Hidalgo

Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, who has worked closely with Professor Carlos Moreno on implementing the 15-minute city concept in Paris, introduced the winner and said:

“This event gives us the opportunity to highlight the central role of architecture in improving our quality of life. It is a recognition of Carlos Moreno’s contribution to a better quality of life. And I am happy to know that thanks to this award, the 15-minute city will inspire architects, politicians, and citizens alike to work together.”

In his acceptance speech, Carlos Moreno said:

“A long time ago, I learned that in an Amazonian community, the word “thank you” did not exist and that its equivalent was “pweki”, which means “I did it because it had to be done.” This ancestral wisdom has impacted me for life.

Indeed, in these times of great challenges, my commitment for living cities “had to be done,” but I would never have achieved it on my own. Hence, I must thank many people because this prize is the result of many years of work, of meetings, of intense activities devoted to the search for new ideas, the animation of teams, the exploration of different paths, the confrontation with different realities, and constantly switching between theory and practice. But the most important element in shaping the 15-minute city concept is the sense of sharing and mutual exchange. It is this exciting journey that is being awarded here today.”

Carlos Moreno also chose the OBEL AWARD ceremony as the occasion to announce for the first time a new initiative by the 15-minute city team: the International Observatory of Proximities. The initiative is supported by the global network of cities for climate, C40, the UN HABITAT, the international Union of Architects (UIA), and other partners. This powerful global ecosystem, which will be launched in January 2022, aims to promote the idea of proximity in our cities and territories – spatial proximities as well as social, cultural, cognitive, and digital.

OBEL AWARD 2022 ceremony

Architects and scientists met in Aalborg, Denmark, on 25 October to celebrate cross-disciplinary ideas in the built environment and, specifically, Seratech’s solution for carbon-neutral concrete.

Concrete was on display and in discussion at the OBEL AWARD ceremony 2022 at the Utzon Centre in Aalborg, Denmark on 25 October 2022.

PhD students at Imperial College London Sam Draper and Barney Shanks have won the OBEL AWARD 2022 for their solution to make sustainable concrete. In front of a selection of the Seratech carbon-neutral concrete products, Draper and Shanks accepted the award and the trophy by artist Tomás Saraceno.

Adrian Forty, Emeritus Professor of Architectural History at the UCL in London, held a short lecture on concrete in the modern world – and how it became so rapidly indispensable and so deeply embedded in our cultural and mental landscape. If, he suggested, we are ever to wean ourselves off concrete, we might do well to understand better the nature of our dependency upon it.

Martha Schwartz, Chair of the OBEL AWARD Jury, presented the winners and the jury’s motivation.

“Our focus for the 2022 award was on projects that were carbon-neutral,” she said. “We searched for architectural solutions that could be globally adaptable and scaled up, which could become part of a greater effort to combat climate change.

It was not an architectural solution per se that caught our attention but a new technology. Seratech stood out as a potential game-changer for concrete as a carbon-neutral construction material. The jury agreed that even though this might not be seen as “architecture,” we need all hands on deck and must work together and support ideas that are relevant to the built environment – across disciplines and across silos – to overcome the climate crisis.

The OBEL AWARD is more fluid and open than other awards. So, we can support new and possibly even contentious ideas that have real possibilities and could move us forward.”

In Seratech’s acceptance speech, Barney Shanks said:

“Concrete is an unbeatable material – on cost, durability, and adaptability. That’s the reason we build skyscrapers, tunnels, and airports with it – we trust it. And we have invested a huge global industry that can deliver it. We cannot throw that away. We have to find a way to reduce the harmful impact of making cement.

Sam and I are extremely grateful to the Henrik Frode Obel foundation for setting up this important annual award and to the jury for seeing something in our work that could mark a significant change in how we build, slowing down global warming in the process. Events like this can really magnify the impact of a new idea or a technology, helping to make it more visible to wider audiences and giving confidence to people like us to carry on developing these ideas.”

Sam Draper said:

“Winning the OBEL AWARD is absolutely massive for us. The huge recognition and the prize money will both be invaluable in helping us scale up the production of our concrete and ensure that it can be used in real buildings as soon as possible. Because, at the end of the day, that’s what we all want to see. Carbon-neutral concrete. Buildings that are positive for the Earth as well as humanity.

I hope and believe that Seratech will play a key role in this. But in some ways, maybe it doesn’t matter? If our work and this award can help inspire other young scientists, engineers, and architects to make a difference and contribution to saving the planet, then I would be more than happy.”

OBEL AWARD 2023 ceremony

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