CEBRA wins Nykredit Architecture Prize
15 May 2008


Bakkegårdsskolen i Gentofte tegnet af CEBRA og Søren Robert Lund. Fotograf: Adam Mørk

The young Danish architecture firm CEBRA was awarded the Nykredit Architecture Prize 2008. The award is Scandinavia’s largest architecture prize and with an increased prize fund of 67,000 euros, the prize is also among the largest architecture prizes in the world.


Portræt af CEBRA. Fra højre: Arkitekterne og partnerne Mikkel Frost, Carsten Primdal og Kolja Nielsen

Once a year, the Nykredit Foundation – set up by one of Denmark’s leading financial services groups – awards the Nykredit Architecture Prize and the Nykredit Motivation Prize to leading Danish architects.


Portræt: Arkitekt og indehaver af ONV Arkitekter: Søren Rasmussen

This year, the first prize was awarded to the young Danish star architects CEBRA who in the space of just seven years have made their mark as the most influential new interpreters of the Scandinavian architecture tradition. The Nykredit Motivation Prize of 14,000 euros was awarded to ONV Architects, a leading Danish firm within high-quality prefabricated housing.


Billig boliger af ONV Arkitekter

CEBRA Nykredit Architecture Prize - Information from Architects via 2+1 on 150508



Danish Architecture

THE NYKREDIT ARCHITECTURE PRIZE 2008

The Nykredit Architecture Prize has been awarded by the Nykredit Foundation since
1987. It is Scandinavia’s largest architecture prize, and this year the prize fund was
increased from 300,000 to 500,000 Danish kroner. The prize is awarded annually to a
person or people who have personally or through their work made a significant
contribution to the building industry in the form of architecture or planning, etc.

The Nykredit Motivation Prize
In 1991 the Nykredit Foundation began awarding the Motivation Prize to talented
young architects who have made an impact on the architecture scene. This year the
prize fund has been increased from 50,000 to 100,000 Danish kroner.

Nykredit’s Prize Committee
The Nykredit Foundation awards the Nykredit Architecture Prize and Motivation Prize
based on the recommendation of a specialist Prize Committee. The 2008 Prize
Committee consisted of Kent Martinussen, architect MAA, Carsten Holgaard, architect MAA, and Klaus Toustrup, architect MAA.


Building by CEBRA

The Nykredit Architecture Prize Winners (the past 10 years)
2007 Dorte Mandrup-Poulsen, architect
2006 C.F. Møller A/S, architecture firm
2005 Lene Tranberg, architect
2004 Olafur Eliasson, fine artist
2003 Malene Hauxner, landscape architect, Dr. Agro
2002 PLOT, architecture firm consisting of Julien De Smedt and Bjarke Ingels,
architects
2001 Sven-Ingvar Andersson, landscape architect, APS MDL
2000 Knud Friis, architect, Gehrdt Bornebusch, architect, and Vilhelm Wohlert,
architect
1999 Dissing + Weitling Arkitektfirma A/S
1998 DOMUS arkitekter a/s
1997 schmidt hammer lassen architects

The first year, 1987: Henning Larsen, architect, Jørn Utzon, architect, and Ulrik
Plesner, architect.



The Nykredit Foundation
The Nykredit Foundation has capital of 100 million Danish kroner and annually awards approximately 7 million Danish kroner to initiatives within the Danish financial sector, research and culture. The Housing Prize, Architecture Prize and Motivation Prize fall under this category.
Facts: Nykredit is one of Denmark's leading financial services groups with activities
ranging from mortgage lending and banking to insurance, pension and estate agency
services.

Copenhagen Buildings

CEBRA

ONV Architects

CEBRA wins Nykredit Architecture Prize
The young Danish architecture firm CEBRA was awarded the Nykredit Architecture Prize 2008 on 8 May. The award is Scandinavia’s largest architecture prize and with an increased prize fund of 67,000 euros, the prize is also among the largest architecture prizes in the world.


Building by CEBRA

Once a year, the Nykredit Foundation – set up by one of Denmark’s leading financial services groups – awards the Nykredit Architecture Prize and the Nykredit Motivation Prize to leading Danish architects. This year, the first prize was awarded to the young Danish star architects CEBRA who in the space of just seven years have made their mark as the most influential new interpreters of the Scandinavian architecture tradition. The Nykredit Motivation Prize of 14,000 euros was awarded to ONV Architects, a leading Danish firm within high-quality prefabricated housing.


Building by CEBRA

At the award ceremony, Mikkel Frost, co-founder of CEBRA, said "We are immensely proud. It is a huge pat on the back for a young architecture firm like ours. The prize will open many new doors for us, in Denmark and abroad. We are deeply honoured to be placed on the same list as the greatest names in Danish architecture."


Building by CEBRA

Renewal of Danish architecture
Kent Martinussen, Chairman of Nykredit's prize committee and CEO of the Danish Architecture Centre, predicts that CEBRA will take over the Danish architecture scene in the same way as the likes of Jørn Utzon, Arne Jacobsen and Henning Larsen: "CEBRA is one of the leading renewers of the Danish architecture tradition. CEBRA brings new life to Danish architecture with its powerful global inspiration and they realise the ambition that architecture can solve concrete problems for normal people", says Kent Martinussen and refers to CEBRA's Bakkegårdsskolen project where CEBRA re-invented a local public school.


Building by CEBRA

Factory-made architecture wins prize
The belief that architects can solve the problems facing the modern welfare state appears to form an essential part of Danish architecture today. Nykredit's motivation prize of 14,000 euros goes to ONV Architects who have been able to realise their vision of providing affordable housing in Copenhagen by creating high quality housing out of prefabricated, factory-made units.


Building by CEBRA

Innovative thinking rewarded
Nykredit are especially pleased that this year's two prize winners represent innovative thinking in Danish architecture. "We wish to reward architects who embrace new ways Side 2/1 of thinking and provide the great Danish architecture tradition with new, high-quality perspectives" explains Peter Engberg, Group Chief Executive of Nykredit.

World class Danish architecture prize
The Nykredit Foundation wishes to reward pre-eminent Danish architecture with a prize fund that is comparable with the most coveted prizes in the world.

This year, Nykredit has raised the prize fund of the Nykredit Architecture Prize and thereby ensured that the prize is comparable with architecture's answer to the Nobel Prize – the Pritzker Architecture Prize with a value of 100,000 US dollars and the prestigious Mies van der Rohe Architecture Award of 50,000 euros.

Prize presented by the Minister of Culture
Steen E. Christensen, Chairman of Nykredit, presented the two prestigious architecture prizes to architects Mikkel Frost, Carsten Primdahl and Kolja Nielsen from CEBRA and architect Søren Rasmussen from ONV Architects at the official award ceremony held at Nykredit on 8 May 2008.



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Website: www.nykredit.com