The award was given to him, according to the organizers, to pay homage to a “great figure in design” and “claim” his “contribution to this discipline”.
On this occasion, the author of projects such as the Bosco Verticale in Milan delivered the conference “The brilliant environment”, during which he illustrated the relationship between “architecture and living nature”, a relationship in which, he said, natural elements “are not just decorations”.
The award ceremony was held at the Institución Libre de Enseñanza (ILE), and was conferred by the architect Rafael Moneo, to recognize his prolific career and his contribution in urban planning and architecture, but also editorial and academic.
This is the comment of the architect Boeri following the award ceremony: “In Madrid I received from the hands of Rafael Moneo, a great and sophisticated protagonist of contemporary architecture, an award that is a recognition in Milan, at the Italian architectural school, at the Triennale and at the thoughts on the city. I want to share my happiness for an award that should actually be shared with all those who, over the years, have allowed me to receive it. Thank you.”
Here is his comment at the time of the award: “I am both excited and embarrassed to receive this award today. First of all because, like all awards to an individual, there is always a reason for injustice in the exclusion of all those who deserve with me to share it, having shared years and years of projects, ideas and experiences with me.
I actually feel like a good editor-in-chief, capable perhaps above all of choosing the people who work with me well and putting them in the best conditions to express their incredible talent.
Perhaps it is true that paradoxically the best form of selfishness is generosity. The second reason for my emotion is to receive this award, for which I thank the Madrid Design Festival and its team, from the hands of Rafael Moneo. I started my life as an architect precisely by meeting Rafael Moneo here in Madrid in 1982, sent by Vittorio Gregotti, director of Casabella, to meet the protagonist of the extraordinary filming knows – after decades of Francoism – of Spanish architecture.
From Italy they looked to Madrid, to the projects and theories of Rafael Moneo, to the 50 ideas contained in Eduardo Mangada’s plan with great attention and even envy. I will never forget the kindness with which I was received by Rafael and his lucid analysis of the Italian architectural situation which he obviously knew very well.
And he knew the competition between the Roman and Milanese schools of architecture, not all that different from the one then underway between the Madrid of Moneo and the nascent Barcelona of Bohigas, two cities that became capitals of global architecture.
Just as I don’t forget the subsequent meetings at Harvard and his extraordinary lectures in Milan and at the Triennale. Rafael Moneo and his works have been a cultural and ethical beacon for architects of my generation. Today I feel a bit as if a Real Madrid reserve were rewarded by Di Stefano, or by Pelé. So thanks again.” Source by Stefano Boeri Arcchitetti.