The Golden Lion at the 11th Venice Biennale of Architecture was awarded to Frank Gehry

There are still a few days left until the opening of the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale, but today the holder of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Architecture has already been announced. This year's award goes across the ocean into the hands of Frank Gehry. You can familiarize yourself with the latest work of this unconventional architect in three weeks at London's Kensington Gardens, where the summer pavilion of the Serpentine Gallery will be opened. You can view photographs from the construction process - here. The editorial team joins in the congratulations and will soon shine a spotlight on his work.

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Venice, 27 June 2008 - The Board of the Foundation La Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, gathered today in the offices of Palazzo Querini Dubois, and on the proposal of the Director, Aaron Betsky, awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement for the 11th International Architecture Exhibition to Frank Gehry. With this award, the desire is to stress – in line with the spirit of the 11th Architecture Biennale – how much Gehry’s work is the significant result of years of experimentation. “Frank Gehry has transformed modern architecture”; writes Aaron Betsky in his motivation. “He has liberated it from the confines of the ‘box’ and the constraints of common building practices. As experimental as the art practices that have been his inspiration, Frank Gehry’s architecture is the very modern model for an architecture beyond building”.
The Board has also underlined the important presence Gehry will have in Venice with his Venice Gateway, the water gate linking the city to the airport.
The Board also approved the granting of a special Golden Lion for lifetime achievement to a historian of Architecture – on the occasion of the 500th anniversary