The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies have announced Santiago Calatrava as the winner of their 2015 European Prize for Architecture. Calling Calatrava "a visionary theorist, philosopher and utopian and a true artist in the craft of engineering and architectonic expressionism," president of the Chicago Athenaeum Christian Narkiewicz-Laine noted that "it is significant that The European Prize for Architecture honors Calatrava as an architect, engineer, sculptor, and painter.”
"For decades, modern architects sneered at any close association with the practice of architecture as being an ‘art form,’ but instead based their professional designing pursuits on pure engineering," said Narkiewicz-Laine. "For this singular architect practitioner, architecture is engineering and is definitively art. In Calatrava, we see all three disciplines seamlessly merging into the one practice of architecture with no distinctions or any separations whatsoever."
A formal ceremony presenting the award will be held at the World Trade Center in New York on November 17th. Last year the European Prize for Architecture was awarded to Italian architect Alessandro Mendini, with previous awards going to Finnish Architect Marco Casagrande in 2013, TYIN tegnestue Architects in 2012, Graft Architekten in 2011 and Bjarke Ingels in 2010.
