The balance of influence in contemporary European architecture has clearly shifted away from the Mediterranean area and is now unquestionably centred on Switzerland, Austria and their surrounding regions, according to Barcelona's leading architect, Oriol Bohigas.
Speaking at a ceremony in the Mies van der Rohe Barcelona Pavilion, where the 6th biennial award for European architecture was given to the new Art Museum in Bregenz, Austria, Mr Bohigas remarked that Europe's new museums are today's laboratories for innovation in contemporary architecture.
Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, who designed the Bregenz museum, received a prize worth €50,000 (£39,380) - plus the prestige of winning what has become Europe's premier award for architecture under a scheme established by the European Commission and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation in Barcelona. The award is named after the famous German architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the founders of modern architecture, whose influence can be seen in many Irish buildings, including the Carroll's factory in Dundalk, the Bank of Ireland headquarters in Baggot Street, Dublin, and the RTE complex in Donnybrook. The aim of the award is to bring attention to architectural works of outstanding innovative character, as well as reflecting the European Commission's concern about "the survival of the European city" in an increasingly globalised world. The Commission is concerned that architecture, the heritage of the future, is too narrowly understood. As a result, building is too often treated as an exclusively economic process, whereas it is primarily a social and cultural phenomenon, responding to people's needs and aspirations. It is also about a cultural expression, such as respect for a city or landscape context, a vision of the future or an expression of respect for the past.
Architects in any of 32 European countries, stretching from Iceland to Cyprus, are eligible for the award. Previous winners include Stansted Airport by Sir Norman Foster, London's Waterloo International station by Nicholas Grimshaw and the French National Library in Paris by Dominique Perrault.
The Art Museum in Bregenz, on the banks of Lake Constance, is a gallery for temporary exhibitions. The building forms a new square between the old town and the lake. Basically a cube, it's unusual concrete structure is encased on all sides in large panels of finely etched glass, like a scaly skin. From the outside, by night, the building looks like a lamp and, in daylight, it suggests the haze of the lake.
Mr Zumthor was reluctant to talk about the project when he went to Barcelona recently to collect his award, saying that once a building exists in a place, it should actually be visited. He believes that talking about one of his buildings is a bit like a writer trying to describe the book he has just published. "Authors should not do it," he said. He spoke instead about the project which is currently absorbing him - the Swiss pavilion for next year's Expo 2000 in Hannover. Utterly unlike any previous Expo pavilion, it will be an extraordinary "lumber yard" of a building, exposed to the elements and made entirely of open-jointed planks and beams of wood, stacked precisely, without the use of any nails, bolts, dowels or other traditional fixings. Exposed to the wind on all sides, the wood will gradually be air-dried over the period of the Expo, to be sold off as normal construction timber afterwards.
Mr Zumthor did, however, describe visiting the site of the new Art Museum for the first time. He told how, on a dazzling Alpine morning, he drove out from the tiny village near Chur where he lives and works and, as he descended from the mountains towards Bregenz, the entire waterfront of the city was shrouded in mist coming off the lake. He said he wanted to capture something of that shimmering quality, that atmosphere, in his building.
The jury declared that the Art Museum "conveys an attitude of resistance to a world of easy consumption, creating an introverted place of contemplation". They added that Zumthor's "experimentation with materials and spatial relationships stretches the limits of the possibilities of construction materials and technology".
A total of 33 finalists competed for this year's award, selected by the jury from 123 buildings nominated by 22 experts and the national associations of architects throughout Europe, including the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland. One of the finalists was O'Donnell and Tuomey's Multi-Denominational School in Ranelagh, which was also awarded the Architectural Association of Ireland's Downes Medal earlier this year. Only two other Irish projects have ever been finalists, de Blacam and Meagher's Chapel of Reconciliation in Knock, and Group 91's Temple Bar Framework Plan.
The Mayor of Barcelona, Joan Clos, referred in the recent award to his city of the Royal Institute of British Architects' Gold Medal, in recognition of its influential contribution to contemporary architecture.
The city, he said, had gained its reputation thanks to an exceptional generation of architects. "This is a city that was listening to the message of architects," he continued, "and is willing to continue in that vein, on a rising line of architectural quality." He said this commitment is being renewed as Barcelona prepares itself to become European City of Culture in 2004. The scale of this new undertaking is daunting. The Diagonal, Barcelona's longest street, is to be extended and the coastal area and river "reorganised". Major planning will also address necessary improvements to the airport area and the port. "This is a city which is always ready to learn," Oriol Bohigas said, hinting that he would like to see Peter Zumthor building soon in Barcelona.
Shane O'Toole is an architect and adviser to the Mies van der Rohe Barcelona Pavilion Award for European Architecture.
