Bruther wins Swiss Architectural Award 2020

The Cultural and Sports Centre Saint-Blaise, Paris Bruther

Paris-based studio Bruther, founded by Stéphanie Bru and Alexandre Theriot, has won the seventh edition of the Swiss Architectural Award.

“The three works presented by Bruther deal, with great coherence and quality, with the theme of the periphery (and specifically, the periphery of French cities), recognised as the nerve centre where the contradictions of our society manifest themselves with disruptive force,” the jury said in a statementExternal link on Thursday.

“In difficult contexts, marked by social tensions and characterised by anonymous if not degraded spaces, Bruther intervenes with an architecture characterised by a profound civic demand, which aims to restore dignity to these places and their inhabitants.”

The jury, chaired by Swiss architect Mario Botta, unanimously conferred the award for the three projects: Cultural and Sports Centre Saint-Blaise, Paris (2010-2014), the New Generation Research Centre, Caen (2013-2015) and the Residence for researchers “Maison Julie-Victoire Daubié”, Paris (2014-2018).

It said it recognised Bruther’s work as fully in line with the objectives of the Swiss Architectural Award, which aims to promote architecture that is “sensitive to contemporary ethical, aesthetic and ecological issues and can facilitate public debate”.

‘Social catalyst’

Referring specifically to the glass and concrete Cultural and Sports Centre for the Saint-Blaise neighbourhood in Paris, jury member Dieter Dietz said it embodies “the possibility of architecture to play a positive role as a social catalyst in the rehabilitation of urban critical zones”.

The innovative programming of the building and its “uncompromising architectural realisation” show the great potential that lies in the merging of social concerns and spatial intention, said Dietz, who teaches architectural design at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL).

Founded in 2007, the award is worth CHF100,000 ($106,000) and is given every two years to architects aged under 50 from all over the world who have completed at least three relevant works.