Iconic Awards 2020 Winners News, Frankfurt, Germany Architecture Prize, Interiors, Architects News

Iconic Awards 2020 News

German Design Council – International competition for architects, designers & construction sector

4 Aug 2020

Iconic Awards Winners in 2020

Innovative Architecture: Kengo Kuma and Associates honoured as Architects of the Year

V&A at Dundee building design by Kengo Kuma & Associates:

photo © Adrian Welch

Iconic Awards 2020 Winners – Architecture Prize

Frankfurt am Main, 4th of August 2020 – The ICONIC AWARDS 2020: Innovative Architecture, organised by the German Design Council, honour the best architecture and design solutions internationally.

This year’s winners have now been announced and can set themselves clearly apart from their competitors thanks to their title. The special awards, which each come with EUR 10,000 in prize money, were presented to Kengo Kuma & Associates (“Architects of the Year”) and Alberto Caiola Studio (“Interior Designers of the Year”). The “Architects’ Client of the Year” honour went to Adidas AG.

The award winners will be honoured on 5 October 2020 in Munich. Alongside the special awards, the jury also honours the best work in the categories of “Architecture”, “Interior”, “Product”, “Communication” and “Concept” as well as the general category of “Innovative Material”. A comprehensive summary of all winners can be found at: www.iconic-world.com/directory/filtered/award-iaia/year-2020.

“Architects of the Year” special award

The jury awarded the “Architects of the Year” distinction to the extraordinary firm of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, who is currently one of the most influential creators of contemporary buildings internationally with his iconic designs. Recent projects such as V&A at Dundee , The Exchange and Ochanomizu are the preliminary highlights of an impressive gallery of work that amazes through the consistently high quality of its design.

The skilled incorporation of light in combination with airy facade structures is remarkable, giving buildings such as V&A Dundee and The Exchange an almost immaterial feeling. The nature and quality of the designs not only cause the beholder to pause for reflection, but also, through their power, stir the beholder emotionally.

Kengo Kuma & Associates

“Interior Designers of the Year” special award

This year’s “Interior Designers of the Year” award was given to Alberto Caiola Studio. Alberto Caiola’s work removes the boundaries between classic interior design and art installation in an extremely individual way. When people visit these projects, they do more than enter a room. Rather, Caiola has the visitor discover new, frequently surreal worlds and experience and explore them with all the senses.

This creates exciting installations with high show value, such as the extravagant Crash Baggage @ La Fayette retail space, as well as visually fascinating locations such as the ancient Greece-inspired rooftop club “NYZ”, where visitors are immersed in immaterial-appearing scenery and leave the real world behind them for the time of their stay.

“Architects’ Client of the Year” honour

Adidas Headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria building design by COBE, Denmark:

photograph : Rasmus Hjortshøj – COAST

The “Architects’ Client of the Year” honour, which the jury presents to a project client that supports a holistic understanding of architecture, was given to Adidas AG this year. Adidas hired Behnisch Architects and COBE Copenhagen, two renowned architecture firms with iconic designs attracting admiration globally, for two buildings for its head office employees. They were built shortly after each other on the “World of Sports” campus in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria.

Adidas Headquarters, Herzogenaurach, Germany:

photo : Rasmus Hjortshøj – COAST
Adidas Headquarters in Herzogenaurach

Even though both structures have aesthetics that are strikingly different from each other, they still clearly and consistently represent the brand values of the world-famous sports product manufacturer – integrity, passion, performance and diversity – externally, internally and down to the fine details. Two remarkable projects with iconic architecture that fulfil the company’s ambitions of modernity and contemporary functionality in an exceptional way. What’s more, they offer formidable proof of the visionary power and openness to the extraordinary that Adidas has as an architecture client.

Jury members

• Michel Casertano, Atelier Brückner GmbH, Stuttgart
• Asif Khan, Asif Khan Ltd., London
• Silvia Olp, aed e.V., Verein zur Förderung von Architektur, Engineering and Design, Stuttgart
• Prof. Dr. Werner Sobek, Werner Sobek AG
• Linda Stannieder, CXO, Huawei Research&Development, Berlin
• Song Zhaoqing, Lacime Architects, Shanghai
• Lutz Dietzold, German Design Council, Frankfurt am Main

Iconic Awards 2020 information from the German Design Council

Previously on e-architect:

4 Sep 2017

Iconic Awards 2017

7 Aug 2017

Iconic Awards 2017

Iconic Awards Winners

Frankfurt, Monday, 7 August 2017

The architectural firm AL_A was awarded the title of ‘Architects of the Year‘ at this year’s Iconic Awards. The London-based office founded by the architect Amanda Levete in 2009 succeeded from the very beginning in impressing the experts with fascinating designs, including the modernisation of the Galeries Lafayette in Paris, the V&A Museum in London and the Central Embassy, a shopping mall in Bangkok. The Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) in Lisbon, completed in 2016, likewise created a sensation.

V&A Exhibition Road Project courtyard in London designed by AL_A:

image © AL_A

This year’s ‘Interior Designers of the Year‘ award went to the designer duo Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, who have been creating spectacular projects with their Neri&Hu Design and Research Office for many years, ranging from architecture in space to furniture design. By questioning the traditional use of spaces, things and materials as such and continuously placing them in new contexts, they create uniquely beautiful designs with their typical signature time and again.

And the honorary prize for Architects’ Client of the Year, with which the jury pays tribute to the promotion of a holistic understanding of architecture by a commissioning entity, went to the City of Hamburg.

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg Building

photo : Thies Rätzke

The Elbphilharmonie, which opened in 2017, is not merely another concert hall, but a world-class architectural icon of inestimable cultural value. Bringing the project to fruition despite immense delays and huge cost overruns required people with visionary power, courage and stamina, particularly on the part of the client.

In addition to the special prizes, the jury honoured the best works in the ‘Architecture’, ‘Interior’, ‘Product’, ‘Communication’ and ‘Concept’ categories. The German Design Council has published a comprehensive overview of all award winners at www.iconic-architecture.com/iconic-awards.html.

The ICONIC AWARDS — a holistically designed competition under the aegis of the German Design Council — are held annually to recognise exceptional architectural projects and products. The renowned competition also honours personalities and companies that enhance the quality of our living environment in a noteworthy manner with their visionary projects.

The ICONIC AWARDS ceremony will take place on the 4th of October 2016 as part of the 2016 Expo Real trade show at the BMW Welt Exhibition Centre in Munich, Germany.

ICONIC AWARDS
Comprehensively networked: The international competition for architects, designers, the construction sector and industry.
The ICONIC AWARDS are the first neutral international competition for architecture and design that considers the disciplines in their interaction. The whole world of architecture.

Awards are given to visionary buildings, innovative products and sustainable communication in all sectors of architecture, the construction and real estate business and the manufacturing industries. The competition thus highlights the elementary significance of the interaction of individual trades, focussing on the holistic and consistent staging of products in architecture and construction.

Iconic Awards

German Design Council
The German Design Council is one of the world’s leading centres of expertise for communication and knowledge transfer in design. Currently, more than 280 companies belong to its foundation.

The German Design Council was founded on the initiative of the German Bundestag to support and enhance the design expertise of German industry. It pursues a wide range of activities with a single goal: to increase brand value on a sustained basis via the strategic use of design in communication.

AL_A London Architects

Location: Germany, western Europe

German Architecture

Contemporary Architecture in Germany

Frankfurt Architecture Designs – chronological list

NHOW Hotel, ONE office and hotel skyscraper complex, Frankfurter Messe
Interior Design: Rafael de La-Hoz Arquitectos

image : CA Immo/Rafael de La-Hoz
NHOW Hotel Frankfurt