08 September 2010

Audi Urban Future Award

Lucy Bullivant reports from the Venice Biennale on the future of urban planning seen through the eyes of top architects.

Jurgen Mayer, a Berlin-based architect, has won the 100,000 euros Audi Urban Future Award, it was announced at a reception and exhibition of shortlisted designs in the Scuola Grande della Misericordia in Venice on the day the city’s Architecture Biennale opened.

The new award calls for concepts, models and designs on the theme of future urban planning.

"We are the first automotive company to address the theme of the future with such complexity", said CEO of Audi AG, Rupert Stadler, at the award ceremony.

"Creating a city’s future requires different forms of knowledge. These are not about science fiction but are rooted in real conditions", said globalisation expert Saskia Sassen, chairman of the jury.

The Award is part of Audi’s commitment to social responsibility and environmental issues, and the firm, which sold around 950,000 cars in 2009, has recently established the Audi Environmental Foundation.

The visions of all shortlisted firms are on display at the Scuola until 26 September: Alison Brooks Architects, London, BIG- Bjarke Ingels Group, Copenhagen, Cloud 9, Barcelona, Mayer’s practice J Mayer H, Berlin and Standardarchitecture, Beijing.

In the months leading up to the event, all the architects engaged in workshops and meetings with the Audi Think Tank, discussing future themes such as electrification, networks and new definitions of urban space.

Mayer’s exhibit showed how cities will be influenced by digital technologies.

Urban environments will increasingly feature social media, he says, with a ‘push and pull’ and ‘touch and poke’ approach to navigating its streets.