17.09.2007 Presentation ceremony for first Zumtobel Group Award at Kunsthaus Bregenz

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Over 300 invited guests including numerous leading international architects, artists and journalists attended the presentation of the first Zumtobel Group Award at Kunsthaus Bregenz last Friday.

. Jury chairman Stefan Behnisch praises exemplary nature of winning projects . Laureate Thom Mayne donates EUR 80,000 purse to Global Green . Keynote speaker Klaus Töpfer calls for more action on sustainability . Film premiere opens traveling exhibition at Zumtobel Light Forum in Dornbirn Over 300 invited guests including numerous leading international architects, artists and journalists attended the presentation of the first Zumtobel Group Award at Kunsthaus Bregenz last Friday. The  highlight of this gala event was the presentation of the crystal award statues, designed by William Sawaya of Sawaya & Moroni, to the laureates in the two award categories. Jury chairman Stefan Behnisch, himself a renowned architect and visiting professor at Yale University, praised the exemplary nature of the winning projects: "The Solar Updraft Tower by Schlaich Bergermann Solar and the San Francisco Federal Building by Morphosis make a substantial contribution toward a livable, sustainable and equitable future. By selecting the Federal Building, the jury is making a symbolic and political statement on the need for sustainable solutions in the major cities of the developed world in particular, if we are to successfully combat pollution. The Solar Updraft Tower, on the other hand, opens up new prospects for developing countries to obtain simple, eco-friendly and secure energy supplies, which is what we aim to support by selecting this project."  Award statues for Jörg Schlaich and Thom Mayne The basic idea of the Solar Updraft Tower is to transform solar energy into electricity using existing local resources and skills, explained Jörg Schlaich, who stepped up to receive the transparent green statue in the category "Research & Initiative" also on behalf of his partner Rudolf Bergermann. In the "Built Environment" category it was the natural ventilation system and the ingenious use of space that convinced the jury to honor the Federal Building in San Francisco. A delighted Pritzker Prize winner Thom Mayne received the award statue from the hands of Zumtobel Group CEO Andreas Ludwig and announced that he would be donating the purse of EUR 80,000 to the environmental organization Global Green. "We are very pleased indeed at this generous gesture," said the Director of Global Green, Matt Petersen, who was also among the guests. "For our aid projects, like the reconstruction of New Orleans after the flood disaster, this purse will be a great help." Keynote speaker Klaus Töpfer calls for more concrete action on sustainability In his keynote address, the former German Federal Minister for Urban Development, Federal Minister for the Environment and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Klaus Töpfer, drew attention to the need for change, above all in the field of urban development. Based on numerous examples of the imbalance between industrialized and developing countries, Töpfer issued an urgent appeal to his audience to take more concrete action to support sustainable development:  "We do not need more words; we need action, action, action!" Art installation & dinner on the Lake of Constance In the context of the award ceremony, the guests were also able to savor a special art experience: On the upper floor of the Kunsthaus, they passed through the installation "288 KW" by the artist Siegrun Appelt, which provided a very striking interpretation of the relationship between light, energy and heat: 0 Thorn Mundial floodlights with a total output of 160,000 watts were played onto a white wall that reflected the brilliant light back into the room. The bright light, the heat given off and the humming of the transformers provided the onlookers with a multi-sensory appreciation of the impact of energy. Following the official ceremony, the scene shifted to the Lake of Constance. On board the MS Vorarlberg, the over 300 guests concluded the gala event with a four-course dinner. Zumtobel Group CEO Andreas Ludwig struck a positive note as the evening drew to a close: "I am really excited to see what amazing results the first Zumtobel Group Award has produced. What impressed me most is the breadth of the range of innovative solutions and approaches with which we can and must master the challenges of our time - always with an eye to our limited natural resources and to promoting social development worldwide. It has always been our goal, through this award, to create an awareness of how architects and engineers can make a major contribution to sustainable development and to improving the quality of life. And for our company, too, this commitment to greater sustainability is a welcome challenge that drives us on to develop even more efficient and intelligent products and lighting solutions."   Exclusive preview screening for Leonardo DiCaprio's documentary in Dornbirn The results of the first Zumtobel Group Award, the two winning projects and eight additional projects awarded honorable mentions by the jury are to be presented to a wider audience in an international traveling exhibition. To mark the opening of the exhibition at the Zumtobel Light Forum in Dornbirn on 8 November 2007, Leonardo DiCaprio's documentary on global warming "The Eleventh Hour" will be given its Austrian public premiere. Other exhibition venues will include Vienna, Zurich, Rome, London and New York. A catalogue has been published to accompany the award ceremony and the exhibition. A book on the Zumtobel Group Award is planned for the spring of 2008. In future, the Zumtobel Group Award will be presented in alternate years. The next award ceremony will be staged in the autumn of 2009. Extract from the guest list Thom Mayne and his wife Blythe - Laureate Jörg Schlaich and his wife Eve - Laureate Stefan Behnisch and his wife Petra - Chairman of the Jury Peter Head and his wife Susan - Member of the Jury Colin Fournier and his wife Dorothea Mezler-Andelsberger - Member of the Jury Yung Ho Chung and his wife Lija Lu - Member of the Jury Klaus Töpfer - Keynote Speaker Matt Petersen, Director Global Green Siegrun Appelt, Artist Matteo Thun, Architect & Designer, and his wife Susanne James Turrell, Artist Hartmut S. Engel, Designer, and his wife Gundi Massimo Iosa-Ghini, Designer, and Milena Mussi Jean Michele Wilmotte, Architect Media contacts Astrid Kühn-Ulrich Zumtobel Group T+43-(0)5572 509-1570 astrid.kuehn@zumtobel.com Kristin Feireiss and Hans-Jürgen Commerell Aedes Architecture Forum T +49-(0)30 282-70 15 zumtobelgroupaward@aedes-arc.de ____________________________________________________ About the Zumtobel Group Award As the logical next step in its corporate commitment to sustainability, in the spring of 2007 the Zumtobel Group created the Zumtobel Group Award for Humanity and Sustainability in the Built Environment. The award is designed to honor sustainable solutions and approaches in architecture and engineering that make a pioneering contribution to a livable, sustainable and equitable future. The curators of the award are Kristin Feireiss and Hans-Jürgen Commerell, Directors of Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin. The award features two categories covering built and realized projects on the one hand and research work and independent initiatives on the other. The "Built Environment" category is dedicated to outstanding architectural, engineering or urban design projects realized within the last two years, which meet current demands for models of sustainable living and working and will match up to the needs of the future. The purse in this category is EUR 80,000. The second category "Research and Initiative" is dedicated to innovative research projects and initiatives in architecture and the built environment. These may be developed by NGOs or universities, or independent groups and individuals. Aiming in particular to encourage an emerging generation of researchers and practitioners in architecture and urban design, this category, which carries a purse of EUR 60,000, is intended to foster the progress of ongoing initiatives and research projects. The Jury of the Zumtobel Group Award 2007 Stefan Behnisch (Chairman) Architect / Behnisch Architekten, Stuttgart (Germany) Yung Ho Chang, Architect, Head of Department of Architecture / Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (USA) Colin Fournier, Architect / University College London, London (United Kingdom) Peter Head, Structural Engineer / Arup, London (United Kingdom) Andreas Ludwig, Chief Executive Officer / Zumtobel Group, Dornbirn (Austria) Enrique Norten, Architect / TEN Arquitectos, Mexico City and New York (Mexico, USA) Kazuyo Sejima, Architect / SANAA, Tokyo (Japan) Peter Sloterdijk, Philosopher, Dean of Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe (Germany) Anna Tibaijuka, General and Executive Director / UN Habitat, Nairobi (Kenya)

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