Lisbon Cruise Terminal finalist of an architectural award

The project of the Lisbon Cruise Terminal, designed by Portuguese architect João Luís Carrilho da Graça, is one of the 40 finalists of the Mies van der Rohe European Architecture Prize, the organization announced today.

Also, the project of the Arvo Pärt Center building in Tallinn, Estonia, led by the Portuguese architect Alexandra Sobral, of the Spanish studio Nieto Sobejano Arquitetos, is among the finalists.

In a statement, the 40 finalists selected by a jury composed of Dorte Mandrup, George Arbid, Angelika Fitz,? Tefan Ghenciulescu, Kamiel Klaasse, Maria Langarita, and Frank McDonald announced the award.

Initially, 383 projects were nominated for one of the most important world architectural awards, of which 17 were Portuguese.

The Carrilho da Graça project is the only infrastructure named, with candidates such as Skanderberg Square in Tirana, Albania, bringing together architects from three countries, or the Innsbruck House of Music in Austria, Desert City, in Madrid, and the Museum of Arts in Nantes, France.

The € 60,000 prize, set up in 1987 by the European Commission and the Barcelona-based Mies van der Rohe Foundation, is considered one of the most prestigious awards in architecture.

It is biennial and distinguishes architecture projects built in the two years preceding its attribution. It also delivers a prize of € 20,000 to architects early in their careers.

The award takes the name of the German architect Mies van der Rohe, who directed the Bauhaus school, founded one hundred years ago in Germany, and which settled in the United States after the Nazi forces seized power in Germany in 1933.

The project of the Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira for the former Banco Borges e Irmão, in Vila do Conde, was distinguished in the first edition of the prize in 1988.