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Jury announced for 2017 Moriyama RAIC International Prize, begins tradition of including prize's prior winner

2016-11-11T13:32:00-05:00

The Prize celebrates a single work of architecture that is judged to be transformative within its societal context and reflects Moriyama's conviction that great architecture transforms society by promoting social justice and humanistic values of respect and inclusiveness. [...] "the conversation about architecture in Canada needs to include what our peers are doing around the globe ... we wish to be there when the best architecture is discussed, wherever it might have been constructed."

The new Canadian prize, which includes CAD $100,000 and a sculpture by Canadian designer Wei Yew, will celebrate its second year in 2017. Li Xiaodong won the prize's inaugural award in 2014 for his Liyuan Library in China, and will now serve on the international jury for the 2017 prize—beginning the Prize's tradition in including the prior winner on the next iteration's jury.

As reported by Bustler, the members of the 2017 Moriyama RAIC International Prize jury are:

Monica Adair, MRAIC: Co-founder of Acre Architects and 2015 Recipient of the RAIC Young Architect Award.
Manon Asselin, MRAIC: Co-founder of Atelier TAG and Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Montreal.
Bryan Avery, MBE: Founder of Avery Associates Architects, London, England, author and lecturer.
George Baird, FRAIC: Founding Principal of Baird Sampson Neuert Architects, Former Dean of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto, and Recipient of the 20...

The tiny village library that draws Beijingers in droves

2015-07-06T14:44:00-04:00

“The library is a tool to attract people to the village,” said Mr. Li, a professor of architecture at Tsinghua University in Beijing. When visitors come to see the library, he said, they also spend money at the village’s few restaurants, pay parking fees and donate money for the building’s upkeep. “The place is special,” said Li Wenli, 45, an insurance saleswoman from Beijing [...].

Call it a rural Bilbao Effect or not, we're still quite excited that Archinect was one of the very first outlets to publish Li Xiaodong's stunning Liyuan Library building: First spotted on the popular China Builds blog and then, in a little more detail, as a ShowCase installment in the Features section.

The poetic envelope for the small village library has been well recognized since then — last fall, Li Xiaodong was presented the inaugural 2014 Moriyama RAIC International Prize of $100,000 CAD.

Reporting from Toronto: Li Xiaodong wins inaugural Moriyama RAIC International Prize for the Liyuan Library

2014-10-13T14:05:00-04:00

Designed to inspire Canadian architects and raise the level of ambition in Canadian architectural culture, the inaugural 2014 Moriyama RAIC International Prize of $100,000 CAD has been awarded to Liyuan Library, a dramatic and beautiful project in Jiaojiehe China. The building is a simply detailed, glazed volume screened by locally sourced wood twigs, set in a stunning rural landscape. Designed to make a big impact in its social context, the community-run facility is building its collection asking visitors to donate two books for each one they borrow. The award is for a “single, transformative work of architecture”.

The award was founded by esteemed Canadian architect Raymond Moriyama and this year´s prize was judged by jurors Brian Mackay-Lyons, Patricia Patkau, Bing Thom, Maxime Alexis-Frappier, Barry Johns and Edward Cullinan. The submission guidelines were surprisingly open: any building, anywhere, any program, any size, by architects or designers. The main stipulation was tha...