Image © Iwan Baan
Chilean architect Smiljan Radic was announced the winner of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize 2018 Architecture Awards from The American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York.
The academy’s annual architecture awards program began in 1955 with the opening of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize. The prize is given to an architect of any nationality who has made a significant contribution to architecture as an art. The program has since been expanded to include four Arts and Literature Awards for American architects that explore ideas in architecture through any medium of expression.
Image © Iwan Baan
This year’s winners were chosen from a group of 32 individuals and practices nominated by the members of the Academy. The jurors were: Annabelle Selldorf, Kenneth Frampton, Steven Holl, Thom Mayne, James Polshek, Billie Tsien and Tod Williams.
Smiljan Radic creates strong atmospheric spaces that resonate deeply and transcend the visual.
– Annabelle Selldorf
Image © Nico Saieh
On this occasion, the other four Arts and Letters in Architecture Prize winners were awarded to Brad Cloepfil for, as Kenneth Frampton points out, his architecture ‘exceptionally varied with a wide range of material expression. MASS Design Group for ‘challenging architectural preconceptions focusing on architecture as a healing tool’ (Tod Williams). Cassim Shepard for her works that ‘explore the little known and invisible city that we all inhabit’ (Billie Tsien); and William Stout for ‘nurturing the culture of architecture for more than forty years’ (Steven Holl).