BARCELONA, SPAIN.- The Netherlands Embassy Berlin by OMA / Rem Koolhaas & Ellen van Loon Wins European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award 2005. In a press conference held today at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona, Ján Figel’, the European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism and Joan Clos, Mayor of Barcelona and President of the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, have announced that the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award 2005 has been granted to the Netherlands Embassy Berlin, Germany, by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) / Rem Koolhaas and Ellen van Loon.

The jury, chaired by Zaha Hadid*, unanimously singled out two projects for their final deliberation: OMA’s Netherlands Embassy in Berlin, Germany and the Braga Municipal Stadium, Portugal, by Eduardo Souto de Moura. Both projects were praised for the extraordinary relationships established with their respective surroundings – the reunified city of Berlin in the former case and the hilly landscape of Braga in the latter.

In making their decision to award the Netherlands Embassy Berlin, the jury commended the “quality of the urban reflection and intelligence of the concept implemented, especially as regards the unprecedented concept of ‘trajectory’ and the new potential it brings to this project of great complexity”.

The Emerging Architect Special Mention goes to NL Architects for their BasketBar at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. This Mies van der Rohe Award 2005, with two prize-winning works by Dutch architects, confirms the success of the policy in the Netherlands in support of contemporary architecture and young architects.

Commissioner Figel’ and Mayor Clos will present the winners with their awards at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, Barcelona at 19:30h today. Prior to that, at 17:00h, Rem Koolhaas of OMA will give a lecture about the Netherlands Embassy in Berlin.

Jury members: Zaha Hadid (chair), Aaron Betsky, Stefano Boeri (1st meeting), Eduard Bru, Roberto Collovà, Mohsen Mostafavi, Suha Özkan, Francis Rambert and Kazuyo Sejima.