by ArchitectureWeek

For a sneak preview of who may win the Pritzker Prize or the Agha Khan Prize in 2030, we can look at this year's nominees for the first Francesco Borromini International Award for Young Architects.

This award aims at promoting the works of architects under 41 years of age whose thoughts and ideas, "being strongly oriented toward research and experimentation, have helped build a common identity where the relationship between man and the environment might find a new balance."

In establishing the Borromini Award for Architecture, the City of Rome pays tribute to that great architect on the 400th anniversary of his birth. Borromini is considered to be the inventor of Baroque architecture as well as the author of some of the most important works of art in Rome.

A global committee of 30 experts has recently come up with a list of over 50 nominees. One of these architects (or teams) will be selected in the spring by a jury composed of Shigeru Ban, Francesco Dal Co, Javier Mariscal, Carme Pinos, and chaired by Domenico Cecchini.

A few of the nominees are represented here. They share common traits of imaginative form, an eye to social or ecological responsibility, and sometimes the unexpected use of industrial materials such as galvanized steel and corrugated fiberglass.

Gallery in Soho

Normalgroup for Architecture, a New York studio for design, research, and theory, has two partners, Sabine von Fischer and Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss.

The Normalgroup created "Blur" for a competition for the Mies van der Rohe Foundation in Barcelona. The blur marks the front of the addition meant to serve the foundation's curatorial needs. Image: Normalgroup "Springtecture H" by Shuhei Endo. Photo: Yoshiharu Mastumura   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.