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Architecture With is the theme of the 2024 Obel Award, an international architecture prize awarded annually by the Copenhagen-based Henrik Frode Obel Foundation. The award recognizes and celebrates architectural projects that promote social and ecological development on a global level through creative ideas for solving the urgent problems facing the planet.
Every year, a different theme is chosen to stimulate exchange on current issues, drawing attention to the importance and fragility of our societies and our built environment. The award therefore aims to identify architectural projects that address the challenges of the present and future.
In 2023, the focus was on adaptation and architecture’s ability to adapt to an ever-changing world. The winning project was Living Breakwaters by SCAPE.
Architecture With explores the differences between participation and co-creation, focusing on collaboration with other disciplines involved in the design process. Central to this is a non-hierarchical approach towards collective design that actively involves the community.
As climate, atmospheric, political, and economic changes accelerate, challenges are emerging that affect the entire planet. Architects and designers therefore need to devise strategies in response to this by creating innovative, safe, and flexible environments to encourage the prosperity of diverse communities.
As Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, co-founder of Snøhetta and chair of the Obel Award jury, commented:
“Architecture by nature is plural. It is important not to underestimate the complexity nor the collective intelligence of a community. Symbiosis occurs when each party can listen to the other, when respect and social intelligence are exercised throughout a project.”
The jury of the Obel Award 2024 comprises chair Kjetil Trædal Thorsen (co-founder of Snöhetta), Nathalie de Vries (founding partner of MVRDV, Rotterdam), Louis Becker (design principal and partner at Henning Larsen, Denmark), Dr Wilhelm Vossenkuhl (professor emeritus of philosophy), Xu Tiantian (founding principal of DnA, Beijing), Aric Chen (general and artistic director of the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam), and Sumayya Vally (founder and principal of Counterspace).
>>> Discover the 2024 Serpentine Pavilion, designed by Mass Studies, Seoul.
All images courtesy of Henrik Frode Obel Foundation
