Dezeen Wire: Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira is to be awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the opening of the 13th International Architecture Biennale in Venice on 29 August.

Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas received the award two years ago - see our earlier story.

See all our stories about Álvaro Siza »

Here's the full press release:

Álvaro Siza Vieira has been chosen to be the recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the 13th International Architecture Exhibition - Common Ground (Venice, Giardini and Arsenale, August 29th - November 25th, 2012).

The decision is made by the Board of la Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, under Director David Chipperfield's proposal, with the following motivation:

"I am equal in size to whatever I see, not hemmed in by the size I am" (Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet)

"It is difficult to think of a contemporary architect who has maintained such a consistent presence within the profession as Álvaro Siza. That this presence is maintained by an architect that lives and works at the extreme Atlantic margin of Europe only serves to emphasise his authority and his status."

"Since the early appreciation of the Boa Nova restaurant and the swimming pools at Leca de Palmeira and a reputation confirmed by the early houses, Siza has maintained a unique position in the architectural galaxy. This position is full of paradox. Siza has upheld a consistent production of works at the highest level, yet without the slightest hint of the overt professionalism and promotion that has become part of the contemporary architect's machinery. Apparently running in the opposite direction to the rest of the profession he always seems to be out in front, seemingly untainted and undaunted by the practical and intellectual challenges he sets himself."

"Secured by his isolated location, he exudes worldly wisdom. Experimenting with forms of extreme geometry he manages to produce buildings of great rigor. Developing an architectural language that is uniquely his, he seems to speak to all of us. While his work exudes the security of judgment, it is clearly intensified through cautious reflection. While we are dazzled by the lightness of his buildings, we feel the seriousness of their substance.

Those of us fortunate enough to have heard him speak about architecture, using words as sparingly and as precise as the fine lines of his drawings, know that these works are not the product of a conventional talent but of a mind sophisticatedly exercised by the confidence of knowledge and the wisdom of doubt."

The Golden Lion will be officially awarded to Álvaro Siza Vieira on Wednesday August 29th, 2012 - 11am at the Giardini of la Biennale, during the opening and award ceremony of the 13th International Architecture Exhibition.

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The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was awarded to Rem Koolhaas of OMA (see our earlier story), and a Golden Lion was awarded in memoriam to Japanese architect Kazuo Shinohara.

See all our stories about Venice Architecture Biennale 2010 »

The Official Awards of the 12th International Architecture Exhibition People meet in architecture have been conferred

The International Jury of the 12th International Architecture Exhibition composed by Beatriz Colomina (Spain) President of the Jury, Francesco Dal Co (Italy), Joseph Grima (Italy), Arata Isozaki (Japan), Moritz Küng (Switzerland) e Trinh T. Minh-ha (Vietnam) has decided to confer the official awards of Biennale Architettura 2010 as:

Golden Lion for the best National Participation to the Kingdom of Bahrain
(Artiglierie dell’Arsenale)
Reclaim
Bahrain Urban Research Team (Tamadher Al Fahal; Muna Yateem; Fay Al Khalifa; Deena Ashraf; Fatema Al-Hammadi; Mohammed Al-Qari); LAPA (Harry Gugger; Leopold Banchini; Simon Chessex; Russell Loveridge; Ning Liu) and Camille Zakharia (photographer and engineer) and Mohammed Bu Ali (producer)
Commissioner: Ministry of Culture & Information; Noura Al-Sayeh.
Curators: Noura Al-Sayeh;
Fuad Al-Ansari.

Golden Lion of the best project of the Exhibition People meet in architecture
to junya.ishigami+associates (Japan. Corderie dell’Arsenale)
Architecture as air: Study for château la coste

Silver Lion for a promising young participant of the Exhibition People meet in architecture
to OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen + Bas Princen
(Belgium and The Netherlands. Giardino delle Vergini, Arsenale)
7 rooms 21 Perspectives

In addition to the official prizes, the International Jury has decided to assign three Special Mentions to:
Amateur Architecture Studio (China. Corderie, Arsenale)
Decay of a Dome

Studio Mumbai (India. Corderie, Arsenale)
Work Place

Piet Oudolf (The Netherlands. Giardino delle Vergini)
Il Giardino delle Vergini

Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement
to Rem Koolhaas

Golden Lion in memoriam
to Kazuo Shinohara

The motivation of the International Jury:

Golden Lion for the best National Participation

Given the range of vast urban developments that Kingdom of Bahrain could have been tempted to include in this Exhibition, the jury was impressed by the choice, instead, of a lucid and forceful self-analysis of the nation’s relationship with its rapidly changing coastline. Here transient forms of architecture are presented as devices for reclaiming the sea as a form of public space: an exceptionally humble yet compelling response to People meet in architecture, the theme proposed by Exhibition Director Kazuyo Sejima.

Golden Lion of the best project of the Exhibition People meet in architecture
In awarding Architecture as air: study for château la coste the Golden Lion, the jury would like to acknowledge the unique and uncompromising vision of its author, Junya Ishigami. The work pushes the limits of materiality, visibility, tectonics, thinness, and ultimately of architecture itself.

Silver Lion for a promising young participant of the Exhibition People meet in architecture
The jury’s selection of architects OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen in collaboration with photographer Bas Princen as recipients of the Silver Lion is a recognition of the remarkable potential of the practice and this ongoing collaboration. The jury was struck by their ability to reconcile photographic analysis and design intervention into a coherent vision, particularly given the project’s resonance with the theme proposed by the Exhibition Director.

Special Mentions

A special mention is awarded to Decay of a Dome by the team Wang Shu, Vito Bertin, Lu WenYu of Amateur Architecture Studio. Of great merit is the wisdom of the project whose structure – light, mobile and utterly simple – can be speedily constructed or returned to nothingness.

A special mention is awarded to Studio Mumbai Architects for the immersive environment presented in their installation – an exceptional insight into the creative context of the atelier in which their work originates.

A special mention is awarded to landscape architect Piet Oudolf for Il Giardino delle Vergini, his subtle, impressionistic yet carefully orchestrated garden. The jury read it as an effective transposition into the landscape of la Biennale’s theme.

The Awards and Opening Ceremony of the 12th International Architecture Exhibition will take place today August 28th 2010, at 4 pm at Giardini, also with the conferral of the Golden Lions attributed by the Board of la Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta and on the proposal of the Director, Kazuyo Sejima.

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See all our stories about Rem Koolhaas in our special category.

Rem Koolhaas Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement
Kazuo Shinohara Golden Lion in memoriam

The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement for the 12th International Architecture Exhibition (Venice, Giardini and Arsenale, 29th August – 21st November, 2010) has been awarded to the Dutch architect, Rem Koolhaas. The decision was taken by the Board of the Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, upon the proposal of the Director of the 12th Exhibition, Kazuyo Sejima.

“Rem Koolhaas has expanded the possibilities of architecture. He has focused on the exchanges between people in space. He creates buildings that bring people together and in this way forms ambitious goals for architecture. His influence on the world has come well beyond architecture. People from very diverse fields feel a great freedom from his work.“

Mentioned in Time in 2008 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, in 1975 Rem Koolhaas – together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp – founded OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture). The most important works by Koolhaas and OMA include the Netherlands Dance Theatre at The Hague, the Nexus Housing at Fukuoka in Japan, the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, the Grand Palais of Euralille and Lille, the Villa dall’Ava, the Très Grande Bibliothèque and the Seattle Public Library. Together with Koolhaas’s reflections on contemporary society, these buildings appear in his book, S,M,L,XL (1995), written as though it were a “novel about architecture”. In 1978, he wrote Delirious New York: a retroactive manifesto for Manhattan, which has become a classic of contemporary architectural theory. In 2000, he won the Pritzker Prize.

The Board has also decided to award a special commemorative Golden Lion in memory of the Japanese architect, Kazuo Shinohara, who died in 2006 and who had a broad influence on the Japanese architectural scene, giving rise to the so-called “school of Shinohara”, the inspiration for the works of Toyo Ito, Kazunari Sakamoto and Itsuko Hasegawa.

“Shinohara was a person who thought directly about the symbolism inherent in space and how that symbolism relates to individuals. In one way, he thought about how that symbolism was formed in the context of Japanese tradition but in another, he was concerned with more abstract geometries and the randomness of the city. With this research, he created very special and very sensitive houses that helped him form a thesis critical of modern architecture. People in Japan and around the world have been fascinated by him. I’m proposing to honor him here because he thought about the power of space on a very personal level.”

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