David Chipperfield’s Neues Museum Receives 2011 Mies van der Rohe Award

The Neues Museum in Berlin is the winner of the 2011 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award, the European Commission and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation announced today. The building is a reconstruction, blending old and new, by UK architect Sir David Chipperfield.

Staircase Hall. ©Ute Zscharnt for David Chipperfield Architects.

Mohsen Mostafavi, Chair of the jury, said: “The rebuilding of the Neues Museum is an extraordinary achievement. Rarely have an architect and client succeeded in undertaking a work of such historic importance and complexity; especially one that involves both preservation and new building. The project raises and addresses many aesthetic, ethical, and technical issues. It is an exemplary demonstration of what collaboration can achieve in the context of contemporary European architectural practice.”

The 'Emerging Architect Special Mention' award goes to Ramon Bosch and Bet Capdeferro for the Collage House in Girona, Spain.

The award ceremony will take place on 20 June at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona.

Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, said: "My congratulations to our winners who have created two exceptional buildings. The Neues Museum brings the past and present together in an stunning mix of contemporary architecture, restoration and art. The Collage House in Girona is another remarkable renovation which fuses old and new materials in a harmonious whole."

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©Ute Zscharnt for David Chipperfield Architects.

East façade. ©Ute Zscharnt for David Chipperfield Architects

Greek Courtyard. ©Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz / DCA, photographer: Christian Richters

Egyptian Courtyard, Platform on level 2. ©Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz / DCA, photographer: Christian Richters

Room of the Niobids, View into the North Dome Room ©Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz / DCA, photographer: Ute Zscharnt

Section through the Egyptian and the Greek Courtyard. ©David Chipperfield Architects

Floor plan level 1. ©David Chipperfield Architects

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David Chipperfield

Sir David Alan Chipperfield was born in London in 1953 and was raised on a farm in Devon, in the southwest of England. He studied architecture at the Kingston School of Art and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, graduating in 1980. He later worked with Douglas Stephen, Norman Foster, and Richard Rogers before founding his own firm, David Chipperfield Architects, in 1985.

The firm has grown to include offices in London, Berlin (1998), Shanghai (2005), Milan (2006), and Santiago de Compostela (2022). His first notable commission was a commercial interior for Issey Miyake in London, which led him to work in Japan. In the United Kingdom, his first significant building was the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, completed in 1997.

Chipperfield has developed over one hundred projects across Asia, Europe, and North America, including civic, cultural, academic, and residential buildings. In Germany, he led the reconstruction of the Neues Museum in Berlin (1993–2009) and the construction of the James-Simon-Galerie (1999–2018).

He has been a professor at various universities in Europe and the United States, including the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart and Yale University. In 2012, he curated the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. In 2017, he established the RIA Foundation in Galicia, Spain, dedicated to research on sustainable development in the region.

He is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and has been recognized as an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Bund Deutscher Architekten (BDA). He has received numerous awards, including the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2011, the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association in 2013, and the Pritzker Prize in 2023. In 2009, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, in 2010 he was knighted for his services to architecture, and in 2021 he was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour in the United Kingdom.

Chipperfield's career is distinguished by his focus on the relationship between architecture and its context, as well as his commitment to sustainability and the preservation of architectural heritage.

Published on: April 11, 2011

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