Mecanoo receives 2021 European Prize for Architecture

Mecanoo is presented this year with what is known internationally as Europe’s Highest Award for Architecture by The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design at a Gala Dinner Award Ceremony at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece on September 10.

Francine Houben and Dick van Gameren from the Dutch office of Mecanoo have been selected as the 2021 European Prize for Architecture Laureates, announced Christian Narkiewicz-Laine, Museum President/CEO of The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.

With offices in Delft, New York, and Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the global firm has consistently and wholeheartedly pursued the highest quality of architecture for the specific location in which the project is to be built, the functions it would house, and especially for the people who would inhabit and use their buildings and spaces.

“As one of Europe’s most creative and cutting-edge offices,” states Christian Narkiewicz-Laine, Museum President, The Chicago Athenaeum, “Mecanno has shaped unique solutions for each varying situation, in which the disciplines of architecture, urban planning, landscape and interior combine in a non-traditional way.”

From an office that started out designing social housing in an era of urban renewal, the practice has developed into an international firm working across the world with projects ranging from the Library of Birmingham (2013), Delft University of Technology Library (1993-1998), the La Llotja Theatre and Conference Centre in Lerida, Spain (2004-2010) and—most recently—New York Public Library.

Mecanoo has over 30 years’ experience in the design of buildings, urban plans, landscapes and interiors, in which the public space always plays a central role.

“For their integrity in their approach to Mecanoo’s buildings, as well as the way they conduct their practice,” states Narkiewicz-Laine, “and their responsible attitude toward the environment, their ability to be cosmopolitan while embracing the uniqueness of each place in which they work, for all these reasons and more, Francine Houben and Dick van Gameren are awarded the 2021 European Prize for Architecture Prize.”

The formal ceremony and gala dinner for what has come to be known throughout the world as Europe’s highest honor for architecture will be held at a Gala Dinner at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece— the birthplace of Western Architecture—on September 10, 2021.

For more information and press photographs contact: Ms. Konstadina Geladaki, Director of Communications, Contemporary Space Athens at konstadina@europeanarch.eu