This morning the 9th Architectural Biennale honored Peter Eisenman with the Golden Lion for the Lifetime Achievement and awarded The Golden Lion for the most remarkable work in the exhibition to SANAA for the projects "21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art" in Kanazawa and for the extension of the Ivam, Valencia.
Offical Press Release of all awards.

Official Awards of the 9th Intl. Architecture Exhibition

METAMORPH
09/10/2004

On September 10 at 11.30 a.m., during the Award Ceremony that took place at the Theater alle Tese of the Arsenale with the presence of the Minister of the Culture Giuliano Urbani, the General Secreteray of the Foreign Department Umberto Vattani, the Major of the City of Venice Paolo Costa, the President of the Foundation La Biennale di Venezia Davide Croff and the Director of the 9th International Architecture Exhibition Kurt Forster, the International Jury, composed by Dieter Bogner (historian and publicist, Wien), Luis Fernández-Galiano (editor, "Arquitectura Viva" and "Arquitectura y Vivienda", Madrid), Kent Martinussen (director, Danish Architecture Center, Copenaghen), Marianne Stockebrand (director, The Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX), Vittorio Zucconi (correspondent for "La Repubblica", Washington, DC) has assigned the Official Awards, consisting of three Golden Lions and eight Special Awards:

- The Golden Lion for the Lifetime Achievement to Peter Eisenman (Newark, New Jersey, USA, 1932). For his accomplishments as a thinker and teacher, a mentor to many minds, an architect of singular capacity and inventiveness, a master designer for the new millenium and a leading light in the profession worldwide.

- The Golden Lion for the best installation presented by a Country is awarded to the Pavilion of Belgium and the installation "Kinshasa, The Imaginary City". The Kinshasa installation is conceived and presented by: Katrien Vandermarliere (commissioner), Filip De Boeck & Koen Van Synghel (curators), Marie-Françoise Plissart (exhibitor). The project is recognized for its provocative and outstanding way of showing the public that the traditional strategies and typologies of architecture may not always be the best answer to the big challenges of the world. The project argues that the questions of identity, community and infrastructure are undergoing such heavy metamorphosis that new definitions and solutions are to be developed.

- The Golden Lion for the most remarkable work in the exhibition METAMORPH is awarded to the Japanese architecture firm SANAA for the projects "Twenty-First Century Museum of Contemporary Art" in Kanazawa in Japan and for the extension of the Ivam, Valencia, Spain. Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa show that the public buildings can define a common space of integration and meditation of the highest quality. A space which reflects the necessary metamorphosis that is taking place in these years of the very idea of the relationship among the collective space, the city and the individual, here in the example of long established category - the museum.

CONCERT HALLS
The special award for the most accomplished work in the section Concert Halls is awarded to the Danish/Belgian architecture firm Plot by Julien De Smedt and Bjarke Ingels for the project Concert Hall Stavanger in Norway. The project shows a radical new way of avoiding the monolithic and intimidating character of the traditional typology of the concert hall - here the skin of the buildings "transmorphs" into a huge public outdoor landscape theatre.

EPISODES
The special award for the most accomplished work in the section Episodes is awarded to the German photographer Armin Linke and the Italian architect Piero Zanini for the installation Alpi. The installation uses three screens to develop an atmospheric story of the Alps as a communal place, transmitting with eloquence and refinement an exploration of a colossal natural ecosystem in the centre of Europe

TRANSFORMATIONS
The special award for the most accomplished work in the section Transformations is awarded to the Austrian architect Günther Domenig for the Documentation Centre at the Party Rally Grounds, Nuremberg, Germany. By radically deconstructing the intimidating regularity of the existing Nazi structure, Günther Domenig has succeeded in transforming a symbol of a dreaded past into a structure of a critical memory.

TOPOGRAPHY
The special award for the most accomplished work in the section Topography is awarded to Foreign Office Architects Ltd for the Novartis Car Park in Basel, Switzerland.
The London-based couple of the Spaniard Alejandro Zaera-Polo and the Iranian Farshid Moussavi have established a new continuity between the natural and the artificial, within the context of a large urban research campus and through an inspired shaping of the land.

SURFACES
The special award for the most accomplished work in the section Surfaces is awarded to the Japanese architect Shuhei Endo for the remarkable and quiet project "Springtecture". The elegantly shaped surfaces of the Shiga Prefecture in Japan, constitute a simple yet expressive volume, which creates an experience of a fluid transition of interior and exterior space - all manufactured in available materials from a modern culture.

ATMOSPHERE
The special award for the most accomplished work in the section Atmosphere is awarded to the Australian architecture firm PTW Architects Pty Ltd for the project National Swimming Centre, Beijing Olympic Green in China. The project demonstrates in a stunning way, how the deliberate morphing of molecular science, architecture and phenomenology can create an airy and misty atmosphere for a personal experience of water leisure.

HYPER-PROJECTS
The special award for the most accomplished work in the section Hyper-Projects is awarded to Martinez Lapeña-Torres Arquitectos for the Esplanada Forum of Barcelona as the centre-piece of the collective endeavour that has joined politicians, architects and developers to create a new urban landscape on top of a sewage plant, reconciling public space, city infrastructures and ecological planning.

MORPHING LIGHTS, FLOATING SHADOWS (PHOTOGRAPHY)
The special award for the most accomplished work in the section Morphing Lights, Floating Shadows (photography) is awarded to the images of Mars taken by the NASA project in cooperation with JPL and Cornell University. The images represent a scientific breakthrough and a new experience of the peaceful achievements of the human spirit and a haunting representation of unknown landscapes.

The Award Ceremony was ended by the lecture of Peter Greenaway