VENICE.- The international Jury of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia composed of Hashim Sarkis (President of the Jury, Lebanon, USA), Pippo Ciorra (Italy), Sergio Fajardo (Colombia), Marisa Moreira Salles (Brazil), and Karen Stein (USA) has decided to confer the awards as follows:

Golden Lion for Best National Participation:
SPAIN
UNFINISHED
Commissioner: Iñaqui Carnicero + Carlos Quintans.
Curator: Carnicero + Quintans
Exhibitor: Contemporary Spanish Architecture.
Venue: Giardini

Two special mentions have been awarded to the following National Participations:
JAPAN
en : art of nexus
Commissioner: The Japan Foundation. Curator: Yoshiyuki Yamana. Exhibitor: Seiichi Hishikawa, mnm (Mio Tsuneyama), Osamu Nishida+Erika Nakagawa(Osamu Nishida, Erika Nakagawa, Naruse Inokuma Architects (Jun Inokuma, Yuri Naruse), Naka Architects’ Studio (Toshiharu Naka, Yuri Uno), Nousaku Architects (Fuminori Nousaku, Junpei Nousaku), miCo. (Mizuki Imamura, Isao Shinohara), Levi Architecture (Jun Nakagawa), Shingo Masuda+Katsuhisa Otsubo Architects (Shingo Masuda, Katsuhisa Otsubo), Koji Aoki Architects (Koji Aoki), 403architecture [dajiba] (Takuma Tsuji, Takeshi Hashimoto, Toru Yada), BUS (Satoru Ito, Kosuke Bando, Issei Suma), dot architects (Toshikatsu Ienari, Takeshi Shakushiro, Wataru Doi).
Venue: Giardini

PERU
OUR AMAZON FRONTLINE
Commissioner: José Orrego. Curators: Sandra Barclay and Jean Pierre Crousse.
Exhibitors: Elizabeth Añaños; Sebastián Cillóniz; Claudia Flores; Jose Luis Villanueva; Militza Carrillo, Gino Fernández; Miguel Chávez, Alvaro Echevarría, Alfonso Orbegoso; Karel van Oordt, Daizuke Izumi, Alejandro Torero; Carlos Tamayo; Luis Miguel Hadzich.
Venue: Arsenale, Sale d’Armi

Golden Lion for the Best Participant in the 15th International Exhibition REPORTING FROM THE FRONT to:
Gabinete de Arquitectura (Solano Benítez; Gloria Cabral; Solanito Benítez)
Venue: Central Pavilion - Giardini

Silver Lion for a promising young participant in the 15th International Exhibition REPORTING FROM THE FRONT to:
NLÉ (Kunlé Adeyemi)
Venue: Gaggiandre - Arsenale

The Jury has decided to award a special mention to the following Participant in the 15th International Exhibition REPORTING FROM THE FRONT:

Maria Giuseppina Grasso Cannizzo
Venue: Central Pavilion - Giardini

The Board of Directors of La Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, also awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement upon recommendation of Director Alejandro Aravena to:

Paulo Mendes da Rocha (Brazil)

The Awards Ceremony of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition took place today, Saturday May 28th 2016 at Ca’ Giustinian, the headquarters of La Biennale di Venezia, at 11:00 am.

The motivations
The awards of the international Jury are awarded for the following reasons:

Golden Lion for Best National Participation to Spain for a concisely curated selection of emerging architects whose work shows how creativity and commitment can transcend material constraints.

Special mention as National Participation to Japan for bringing the poetry of compactness to alternative forms of collective living in a dense urban setting.

Second special mention as National Participation to Peru for bringing architecture to a remote corner of the world, making it both a venue for learning as well as a means for preserving the culture of the Amazon.

Golden Lion for the Best Participant in the 15th Exhibition REPORTING FROM THE FRONT to Gabinete de Arquitectura (Solano Benítez; Gloria Cabral; Solanito Benítez - Paraguay) for harnessing simple materials, structural ingenuity and unskilled labour to bring architecture to underserved communities.

Silver Lion for a promising young participant to NLÉ (Kunlé Adeyemi – The Netherlands) for a powerful demonstration, be it in Lagos or in Venice, that architecture, at once iconic and pragmatic, can amplify the importance of education.

Special mention to the Participant in the 15th Exhibition REPORTING FROM THE FRONT to Maria Giuseppina Grasso Cannizzo (Italy), for her perseverance in using the rigours of her discipline to elevate the everyday into timeless works of architecture.