Dezeenwire: the Golden Lion award winners at the Venice Architecture Beinnale were announced at a ceremony on Saturday. The Kingdom of Bahrain was awarded for the best National Participation, while Junya Ishigami + Associates received the Golden Lion for best project in the Exhibition People meet in Architecture. See press release below.

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.

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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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