While last year’s edition honored the Ceresé Winery by StudioPizzi, this year the 2025 Italian Architecture Prize celebrates a place dedicated to culture. The award for best building went to the expansion and enhancement project of the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, a historic art gallery that houses one of Italy’s most important art collections, featuring works by Botticelli, Bellini, and Raphael.
The architectural intervention renewed the museum’s spaces—located at the foot of the Città Alta, beneath the Venetian walls and near the Baluardo di Sant’Agostino—improving the visitor experience and opening new points of connection with the city.
Antonio Ravalli’s work, selected from thirty-one submissions, was chosen for its ability to integrate contemporary functionality into a historic building, improving accessibility and public services without compromising the museum’s identity. The new architectural structure engages with the urban context, transforming a transitional area into a space of connection: resting on the ancient stone wall that once contained the adjacent hillside, the project reclaims this interstitial space and makes it functional, in continuity with the new PwC Gardens.
The jury—composed of Nina Bassoli, Lorenza Baroncelli, Pippo Ciorra, Mirko Zardini, and Tosin Oshinowo—praised the project for “its ability to blend historical and contemporary elements into a discreet yet striking architectural gesture, giving the city back a more open and vibrant museum.”
After the 2024 edition, hosted at MAXXI in Rome as part of the collaboration with the Triennale, this year’s award ceremony returned to Milan, taking place within the Milano Arch Week program—the week dedicated to architecture and urban transformation.
On the same occasion, the Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Giorgio Grassi, an architect from the Milanese school of the 1960s, known for the Sagunto Theatre and the Groningen Library. The jury highlighted “the consistency and rigor of a career that has restored to architecture its civic and collective value.”
Three special mentions were also awarded: to Antonio De Rossi, Laura Mascino, Matteo Tempestini, Edoardo Schiari, and Maicol Guiguet for the redevelopment of the former barracks in Moncenisio, recognized for its ability to unite architecture and social innovation; to Associates Architecture for Echo of the Mountain; and to Studio Albori for the Holy See Pavilion.
An exhibition showcasing the winning project and the mentioned works will be open to visitors at Triennale Milano until November 2.