Previous selections were the Student residences and the Sports facilities, both for the University of Cyprus, the Greek Private Secondary Forum School, the E.A.C. headquarters in Paphos and the Vlasides winery. Not only a healthy number of nominations since the first occurrence in 2004 but, an illustration of the wide range of projects and designs that the office has brought to a noteworthy level of completion over the years.
This year there have been 383 nominees from 238 cities, in 38 countries.
The chances might well be limited, from a logistical point of view, but, this should not be allowed to detract from the significance of the nomination and the wider reach it provides for the profile of the practice. The office is heavily committed and aware that design does not end on the drawing board. The manner in which designs, specifications and works are followed through are paramount to creating a final product of quality. Architecture is not art, it is a finished, functioning products.
Each country, each society has its peculiarities and its own vocabulary.
The challenge to a great extent is to be aware of these linguistics, to acknowledge their influence and yet to create something which rises above and beyond this. The bold statement is not just bold, if it is to be successful. It is also capable of resolving the issues that are inherent in the nature of its brief, its social and environmental context. It should in some way, without falling into the trap of fashion manage to tap into the ethos, the mood of the specific time. The Prize objectives as described in the official website «aim at promoting and understanding the significance of quality and reflecting the complexity of Architecture’s own significance in terms of technological, constructional, social, economic, cultural and aesthetic achievements.»
As such the stringent criteria with which the selection process filters through the plethora of options provides a positive, secure statement in that it resulted in selecting one of the works of the practice. We are honoured.
