The latest edition of the Leaf Awards was held in London in October 2008, gathering more than one hundred candidates from 26 countries worldwide.
The Leaf Conference (Leading European Architects Forum) is an important opportunity for those engaged in international architecture and design to compare notes, while the prize-giving promotes emerging names - alongside the masters of architecture, design and technology - competing against the world’s leading professionals.
An international jury awarded ten different categories of prize, choosing from among projects that had been completed between January 2007 and June 2008. the event closed with announcement of the Grand Prix, overall winner of the whole competition, which went to the Danish practice of Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects for their Performers’ House project in Denmark.
Other prize-winning projects acclaimed for their architectural excellence in the fields of innovation, structural planning and design in the public and private sectors, were: bgp arquitectura, for the Black House project in Mexico; PCKO Architects, and their residential eScape building in the United Kingdom; Kengo Kuma & Associates for the Suntory Museum of Art in Japan; McAslan & Partners with a commercial building at 28 Dorset Square, again in the UK.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill were acclaimed for their design project for the GSC Offices in the United States; Xavier Vilalta Studio, who designed the Arreletes Day-Care Centre in Spain, walked off with the young architects’ prize.
Lastly awards went to the firm of LSI Architects for their Cley Marshes Visitor Centre in the UK; WSP Architectural Design Consulting for the Long Shan Church in China; and Foster & Partners for their Beijing International Airport Terminal.
The next edition of the Leaf will be hosted by Berlin in September.
A new Award category - Master Planning and Landscaping - has been annouced for this year’s Leaf Awards.