Ingenhoven Architects is the ecologically-minded 2022 European Prize for Architecture laureate

Ingenhoven Architects’ founder Christoph Ingenhoven has been selected as this year’s laureate of the European Prize for Architecture, the Chicago Athenaeum and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies announced jointly.

The Düsseldorf-based firm has earned a reputation for ecologically-sensitive high-rise design since first being chartered in the city in 1985, adding recent projects like the Marina One and Toranomon Hills developments to an impressive portfolio of international designs that includes 2008’s Breezé Tower in Osaka and Sydney’s 1 Bligh Street from 2006.

The 62-year-old Ingenhoven was therefore commended as a “pioneer for a green architecture.” Chicago Athenaeum President Christian Narkiewicz-Laine also said he was a “champion, rather tour-de-force, of moral and ethical architecture,” adding that “his buildings demonstrate beauty, modesty, boldness, and invention as the foundation and basis of his practice.”

Standout works from within his home country include the Stuttgart 21 project, Düsseldorf's jungle-like Kö-Bogen II office complex, Freiburg Town Hall, and the Lufthansa Headquarters in Frankfurt, which won the International Architecture Award in 2007. 

The Prize’s jury cautions this is not a “lifetime of achievement award” but rather a recognition of European architects who have “determined a more critical, intellectual, and artistic approach to the design of buildings and cities.” In that regard, Ingenhoven joins past laureates such as Francine Houben and Dick van Gameren of Mecanoo, Henning Larsen, Santiago Calatrava, and Manuelle Gautrand as examples of designers working with a deep commitment to both the principles of humanism and art of architectural creation. 

Ingenhoven is now the Prize’s 17th official laureate. As is custom, he will be honored in a ceremonial gala held at the foot of the Acropolis on September 9th. Tickets are available through the European Centre’s Museum in Athens.