Prix de Rome Architecture 2022
Visit the exhibition Prix de Rome Architecture 2022 – Healing Sites, until 9 April at the Nieuwe Instituut.
Featuring the entries of the shortlisted architects for the Prix de Rome Architecture 2022, with exhibition design by Zico Lopes (Spatial Codes), the exhibition reveals how finalists Arna Mackic, Dividual (Andrea Bit and Maciej Wieczorkowski), Lesia Topolnyk, and Studio KIWI (Kim Kool and Willemijn van Manen) respond to the Healing Sites theme. This year’s Prix de Rome Architecture is organised by the Mondriaan Fund in collaboration with the Creative Industries Fund NL and the Nieuwe Instituut, on behalf of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW).
How do contemporary architects and designers view the complicity of the field? How can they shape their own way of working so that their practice undoes that legacy?
Exhibition
Over the centuries, the efforts of architects, urban planners and landscape architects have contributed to the development of a capitalist, colonial and imperialist legacy that is now impacting or even eradicating entire ecosystems. How do contemporary colleagues view the complicity of the field? How can they shape their own way of working so that their practice undoes that legacy?
For the first time in the competition’s two-century existence, the assignment names no physical site to which competitors must respond with their entries. This year’s ‘construction location’ is their own working method and the position they adopt in relation to the professional field and their environment. The choice of a location is therefore part of the design. The ideological foundation, working process and potential healing effect of architecture are central.
As context, a selection of historical examples of Prix de Rome entries from the National Collection of Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning are on view, along with the history of the Prix de Rome. The exhibition therefore also offers a reflection on the changing role of the architect in society.
Zico Lopes of the Rotterdam agency Spatial Codes is the exhibition designer, while Alex Clay and Karin van den Brandt of the Lesley Moore agency provided the graphic design. In addition to the work of the nominees, the exhibition also includes historical examples of Healing Sites from the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning, plus a contribution from research group Collecting Otherwise.
The question posed for this edition of the prize was formulated in a first assignment in the shape of an open call. The designers of the four selected entries were then invited to the second round, in which they further developed their proposals over a working period of several months.
