Since 1992, every two years the Schelling Architecture Foundation has honoured individuals who have responsibly advanced architecture’s development either through significant designs or realized buildings or with profound contributions to architectural history and theory.

This year the Schelling Architecture Foundation’s prizes that total € 30, 000 are being awarded to the Chinese architects Wang Shu & Lu Wenyu of Amateur Architecture Studio (for architecture) and the French architect Jean-Louis Cohen (for architectural theory). Schelling Medals are being given to the Swiss architects Knapkiewicz & Fickert and the British designer Tom Heatherwick (both for architecture).

The jury’s statement notes that in the approach demonstrated in the work of Amateur Architecture Studio, WANG SHU and LU WENYU have shown a qualified position in the respect for local particularities. The Studio works with local resources and derives from this its poetic and atmospheric energy. Refreshing curiosity and a singular design talent enables the Studio to develop new forms from traditional materials and to open up new fields of application. For this reason, the Studio’s approach could attain a strategic significance for the future of architecture on a global scale.

The French architect, scientist, researcher and curator JEAN-LOUIS COHEN is being honoured for his life’s work which has fundamentally contributed towards the understanding of the international connections between architects of the modern period and their impact. With his meticulous research and their graphic representation in exhibitions and publications, Cohen has succeeded to engage a broad public.

The work of KNAPKIEWICZ & FICKERT is characterized by its absence of ideology and thus its relaxed treatment of the inheritance of modernist housing typologies. It is not the neutral domestic space that is being offered in their work, but a form of space that awakens the users’ undiscovered potentials for inhabitation.

TOM HEATHERWICK is being honoured for his joy in experimenting with technology and craftsmanship. With his interdisciplinary team of collaborators, consisting of sculptors, psychologists, stage designers, photographers and painters, Heatherwick has realized remarkable engineering structures and inventive buildings.

There will be a public award ceremony in the presence of all prize winners and medalists on 14th November 2010 in the Schwarzwaldhalle, Karlsruhe, Germany.