At the exhibition, visitors can view scale models of the over 420 works shortlisted for this year’s Mies van der Rohe Awards, information on each project’s programme, use and relationship with the environment, as well as the creative processes used by the architects, all thanks to scale models, texts, graphics, interviews and videos on the different architecture studios.

“The exhibition is a dynamic space where the visitor is encouraged to discover the power of the lights and images. The exhibition hasn’t got just one figure, but it does have a form: it’s an organism within a system of open, flexible, adaptable spaces. Variations on a 70 x 70 cm module are used to create surfaces where the exhibition materials can be displayed. The modules are made with steel, light and printed canvas. The composition of these different shapes creates the space’s atmosphere”, explained Vidal.

The exhibition is organized in different furniture-like modules designed to display graphic and visual material in three categories: the history of the Mies van der Rohe Foundation, the history of the European Prize for Contemporary Architecture (access area to “the square”) and the projects selected for the prize (the centre “column” area). Scale models and original sketches of the projects by the four finalists, the winner and an emerging architect special mention are also included. The winning project is displayed in the “cella”, or inner temple, space.

Jorge Vidal is currently the director of the School of Architecture’s Forums lecture series and a projects lecturer at the School of Architecture of Barcelona. He has been a visiting professor at several schools of architecture and has sat on the panel of judges for many architecture competitions. In addition to his academic activities, he gives lectures in Spain and abroad and regularly writes about architecture.