Mies van der Rohe Award 2009

The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award 2009 was awarded to the Norwegian studio Snøhetta for the Oslo Opera House. This year's award for emerging architects goes to the Croatian studio STUDIO UP/ Lea Pelivan and Toma Plejić for their design of the sports hall 46° 09’ N / 16° 50’ E in the Croatian city of Koprivnica.
The prestigious European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture and the special prize for emerging architects are awarded every two years by the Mies van der Rohe Foundation and the European Commission. The purpose of the prize, which comes with a financial reward of €60,000, and the entire competition is to showcase creative potential, support innovative solutions, and draw public attention to the significant role that modern architecture plays in society and how it affects the quality of life in the European context.
This year, 340 works were submitted for the prize, including 8 buildings from the Czech Republic. Although no Czech building made it to the final five, the shortlist of 35 buildings to be presented in a traveling exhibition includes a family house in Černošice designed by the studio ksa. For the first time, the Czech Republic was represented on the jury, which included Irena Fialová.