Art School nominated for top European prize
View a gallery of images of the Manchester School of Art by clicking here
THE Manchester School of Art has been recognised as one of the best buildings in Europe – and could be named the winner of the European Union prize for contemporary architecture.
The Benzie Building, designed by architects Fielden Clegg Bradley, has been nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture Mies van der Rohe Award 2015, and will be judged alongside buildings from Finland, Italy and Luxembourg.
The building will also feature stiff competition closer to home, including the Everyman Library, which pipped the art school to the Stirling Prize title last year.
The €60,000 prize is the highest award in European architecture and is awarded biennially to works completed within the previous two years.
International prize
Previous winners include the Neues Museum, in Berlin, the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, in Oslo and the Bibliothèque national de France, in Paris.
The principal objectives are to recognise and commend excellence in the field of architecture and to draw attention to the important contribution of European professionals in the development of new ideas and technologies and of the clients who support them.
The judging panel is made up of top architects from across the world.
Chair of the judging panel Cino Zicchi said: “The aim of the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture is to highlight recent, excellent examples of architectural creativity of works which are less than two years old and to underline that modern architecture is socially and culturally rooted in European cities and is important to people’s everyday lives.”
To watch a video about how the new art school came to be, click here.
