Norman Foster has stepped down from the World Architecture Festival Awards (WAF Awards) super jury because one of his own projects is in the running for the top prize.
Norman Foster has stepped down from the World Architecture Festival Awards (WAF Awards) super jury because one of his own projects is in the running for the top prize.
Foster, the world-famous architect, was to chair the jury who will decide which of the 17 category winning projects announced at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona last week, will be named as the ´World Building of the Year'.
But he stepped down when the renovation of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, designed by Foster + Partners, was announced winner of the New and Old category at the Festival, making it eligible for ´World Building of the Year'.
Robert Stern, Dean of Yale School of Architecture, took over as chairperson of the jury.
Paul Finch, programme director of the World Architecture Festival, said: 'It would be impossible to form an unbiased opinion when one judge has been heavily involved in bringing a nominated project to fruition. Lord Foster’s contribution to the Festival and indeed the world of architecture is remarkable, and it is not surprising that one of his designs was rewarded with such an international accolade. He continues to design with an astonishing understanding for functionality and beauty within the built environment.'
The Arlene Kogod Courtyard, Smithsonian Institution, is competing for the global accolade of World Building of the Year against 16 other category winners which range from a women’s health centre in Burkina Faso, Africa, by Italian Practice FAREstudio, a sheep stable by 70F Architecture in the Netherlands, BMW Welt - Event, Exhibition and Automobile Delivery Center, Germany, by Coop Himmelb(l)au and the Norpark Cable Railway in Austria by Zaha Hadid Architects.
The remaining super-jury includes: Cecil Balmond, deputy chairman of Ove Arup & Partners, Richard Burdett, Centennial Professor in Architecture and Urbanism at the London School of Economics, and Suha Ozkan of the XXI Architecture Centre, Ankara.
