Swiss Architectural Award 2022

The Teatro dell’architettura Mendrisio of the Università della Svizzera italiana is pleased to present the exhibition of the projects selected for the eighth edition of the Swiss Architectural Award, from May 5 to October 22, 2023. 

The exhibition, organized by the Academy of Architecture-USI, shows the works of the 26 candidates from 14 different countries, with a special focus to the winner, Xu Tiantian, founder of DnA Design and Architecture (China).

The award
Promoted by the Fondazione Teatro dell’architettura, the eight edition of the Swiss Architectural Award confirms the collaboration between the three Swiss Schools of Architecture USI—Accademia di architettura, Mendrisio; EPFL—ENAC, Section d’Architecture, Lausanne; ETHZ—Departement Architektur, Zurich, represented in the jury, chaired by architect Mario Botta, by their deans/directors, Walter Angonese, Dieter Dietz and Tom Emerson. The Award benefits from the organizational and operative support of the Academy of Architecture, Università della Svizzera italiana.

With this cooperation, the Swiss Architectural Award confirms it is one of the best endowed and most prestigious architectural awards, by virtue of an advisory committee consisting of internationally renowned architects and architecture critics. The Swiss Architectural Award aims to promote a kind of architecture that is sensitive to contemporary ethical, aesthetic and ecological issues and can facilitate public and disciplinary debate. The prize is awarded, on a biennial basis, to architects not older than 50 years, without distinction of nationality, who have completed at least three significant works.

The winner
Xu Tiantian (Fujian, 1975) gained a Bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University of Beijing and a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. After working in the United States and the Netherlands for OMA, she founded the studio DnA_Design and Architecture in Beijing. In 2006, she received the WA China Architecture Award and in 2008 the Young Architects Award from The Architectural League New York. In 2019 she was awarded the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture. In March 2018, an exhibition about her work, Rural Moves—The Songyang Story, opened at AEDES Architecture Forum in Berlin.

From September 2023, she will start her collaboration with the Università della Svizzera italiana as Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio.

The jury of the eighth edition of the Swiss Architectural Award: chaired by Mario Botta and composed of Walter Angonese (Director of the Accademia di architettura, USI), Stéphanie Bru (winner, with the Paris-based studio Bruther, of the seventh SAA edition), Dieter Dietz(Director of the Section d’Architecture, EPFL-ENAC) and Tom Emerson (Dean of the Departement Architektur, ETHZ)—unanimously conferred the Swiss Architectural Award 2022 to Xu Tiantian for the reuse of the Shimen Bridge over the Songyin River (2016–17), the tofu factory in Caizhai Village (2017–18), and the reuse of the Jinyun quarries (2021–22).

The candidates in the 2022 edition of the Swiss Architectural Award were: Atelier Masōmī—Mariam Kamara (Niger), Bernardo Bader (Austria), Barão Hutter (Ivo Mendes Barão Teixeira, Peter Hutter, Switzerland), Giulio Basili (Italy), Bloco Arquitetos (Daniel Mangabeira, Henrique Coutinho, Matheus Seco, Brazil), Manuel Cervantes (Mexico), dekleva gregoric architects (Aljoša Dekleva, Tina Gregorič, Slovenia); Domat (Maggie Ma, Mark Kingsley, China); Estudio Flume (Christian Teshirogi, Noelia Montero, Brazil), Estudio Macías Peredo (Magui Peredo, Salvador Macías, Messico), Graux & Baeyens (Basile Graux, Koen Baeyens, Belgium), Grillovasiu (Romina Grillo, Liviu Vasiu, Switzerland), Go Hasegawa (Japan), Carla Juaçaba (Brazil), Ryan Kennihan (Ireland), LACOL Arquitectura Cooperativa (Spain), lopes brenna (Cristiana Lopes, Giacomo Brenna, Switzerland), Rozana Montiel (Mexico), Nickisch Walder Architekten (Georg Nickisch, Selina Walder, Switzerland), RAMA estudio (Carla Chávez, Felipe Donoso, Carolina Rodas, Ecuador), sugiberri (Mayu Takasugi, Johannes Berry, Belgium), TEd’A Arquitectes (Irene Perez Piferrer, Jaume Mayol Amengual, Spain); Terra+Tuma (Danilo Terra, Fernanda Sakano, Pedro Tuma, Juliana Terra, Brazil), Tropical Space (Tran Thi Ngu Ngon, Nguyen Hai Long, Vietnam), Xu Tiantian—DnA Design and Architecture (China), Raphael Zuber (Switzerland).

The catalog
The catalog of the exhibition, in Italian and English, is published by Mendrisio Academy Press and Silvana Editoriale.

View the video of the Award ceremony and Xu Tiantian Public lecture, on May 4, 2023 at the Teatro dell’architettura Mendrisio.

For all the information on all the editions of the Award, please refer here.