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Schelling Architectural Theory Award 2014 to Juhani Pallasmaa

Three men are sitting on chairs in front of the exhibition.

The Schelling Architecture Foundation has awarded professor Juhani Pallasmaa (b. 1936 in Hämeenlinna, Finland) the Architectural Theory Award 2014. The jury awarded the prize to the Finnish architect, writer, publisher, lecturer and critic for his life’s contribution to architectural culture, and especially for his impassioned studies of the phenomenological approach.
By viewing architecture as a defender of the authenticity of human experience, he has taken a polemic stance towards the mutability, immateriality and anonymity of our digital world. — Schelling Architecture Foundation, press release
[caption id="attachment_1576" align="aligncenter" width="300"]Juhani Pallasmaa © Adolfo Vera | Schelling Architekturstiftung. Juhani Pallasmaa © Adolfo Vera | Schelling Architekturstiftung.[/caption]The 2014 Schelling Architecture Foundation Architecture Prize awardees were architects Anna Heringer (b. 1977 in Laufen, Germany), Carla Juaçaba (b. 1976 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Diébédo Francis Kéré (b. 1965 in Gando, Burkina Faso). The theme of this year’s prize was indigenous ingenuity / direkt vor Ort [directly from place] with the following questions: How can inventive and directly comprehensible architecture satisfy human needs in an appealing way? How does such architecture come into being? By using regional building materials and local craftspeople? By relating to specific climatic conditions and building traditions?The Schelling Architecture Foundation is an independent cultural foundation established by Trude Schelling-Karrer and Heinrich Klotz in Karlsruhe, Germany in 1992. The Foundation awards prizes biannually in November. A rotating selection committee for 2014 was: Peter Cachola-Schmal, Christiane Fath, Louisa Hutton, Dietmar Steiner, Wilfried Wang and Ludwig Wappner together with guest member Helga Kusolitsch.[caption id="attachment_1577" align="aligncenter" width="618"]Hostels for Bamboo Biennale in Baoxi, Longquan (China), 2013–14. © Heringer, Schelling Architekturstiftung. Anna Heringer. Hostels for Bamboo Biennale in Baoxi, Longquan (China), 2013–14. © Heringer, Schelling Architekturstiftung.[/caption]