A new appointment for the international architecture award arcVision Prize - Women and Architecture, established by Italcementi Group three years ago to promote the work of leading female figures in the architectural world who have had the greatest success in interpreting social valuesin their projects. Recently presented at the Triennale in Milan, this award is the mouthpiece for a form of architecture that is particularly attentive towards the economic and cultural context of urban and non-urban spaces, focussing on citizens and their needs, their relationships and their lives spent inside built-up spaces.
To give greater emphasis to the event, and thanks to the fact that Milan will be the centrepiece this year of the Expo World Trade Fair, Italcementi has decided to work on a collaborative project with We-Women for Expo, the Expo 2015 project created by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Arnoldo and Alberto Mondadori Foundation: “In the year that Milan is hosting the World Expo - explained Carlo Pesenti, the MD of Italcementi - arcVision Prize wanted to involve the Lady Ambassadors of WE-Women for Expo in the third edition of its Architectural award, in the belief that quality architecture is made of creative and technical skills, but also of imagination, feelings and passion. These are all qualities that women know how to bring out, by filling their daily activities with significance and sensibility, whether it be acting, playing sports, running a business or designing a new building. The arcVision Prize wants to reward innovative, sustainable and social ideas and projects, that are oriented towards beauty and the functionality of building and living. The award aims to highlight that 'feminine' vision of architecture which combines technology and environment, materials and form, style and efficiency in the regeneration of cities and their surrounding areas.”
“The commitment of the arcVision Prize - Women and Architecture - said Marta Dassù, Executive Chairman of WE-Women for Expo - constitutes an important example of the enhancement of female talent in a form of architecture that WE-Women for Expo wholeheartedly supports. Moreover, the arcVision Prize - Women and Architecture encourages dialogue between various professionals internationally, a crucially important factor behind the WE-Women for Expo project".
Expo has always represented a lever for the development of scientific research for Italcementi group, (from the silver medal at the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris and then at the Italian Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo in 2010 with its transparent cement, before coming to the new bio-dynamic cement of the Palazzo Italia at Expo Milano 2015).
It will be a totally feminine panel of judges for the prize, consisting of outstanding professionals in the field of social issues, economics and world architecture: Shaikha Al Maskari (member of the Executive Committee of the Arab International Women's Forum-AIWF), Vera Baboun (Mayor of Bethlehem), Daria Bignardi (writer and journalist, WEWomen's Ambassador for Expo), Odile Decq (owner of the Odile Decq firm of Architects), Yvonne Farrell (founder of the architectural firm Grafton Architects), Louisa Hutton (founding member of the Sauerbruch Hutton architectural studio), Suhasini Mani Ratnam (Indian actress, producer and writer), Samia Nkrumah (President of the Pan-African Centre of Kwame Nkrumah), Benedetta Tagliabue (owner of the studio Miralles Tagliabue EMBT), Martha Thorne (Director of the Pritzker Prize, the “Nobel” of architecture).
The award ceremony will take place on 6 March, two days before International Women's Day. For the moment, a group of international advisers have recommended forty designers, subsequently assessed by the Technical Committee led by the Director Stefano Casciani. The chosen short-list will ultimately be submitted to the judgement of the international Panel of Judges before proceeding onto the actual awards.
