David Chipperfield to receive 2015 Sikkens Prize in Amsterdam this month

David Chipperfield was recently announced as the 36th recipient of the 2015 Sikkens Prize. Established in 1960, the biennial Sikkens Prize is one of the oldest independent art prizes in The Netherlands and honors its creative laureates for their innovative use of color. The award reflects the Sikkens Foundation's mission of championing the significant role of color in social, scientific, and cultural developments.

At least in Chipperfield's work, the use of color doesn't necessarily mean bright and vivid hues but rather how Chipperfield uses color to best express the project's materials and historical context.

Chipperfield will be presented with the award on March 29 at the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam.

"Since 1985 David Chipperfield Architects (DCA) have worked on numerous projects all over the world. DCA’s wide-ranging portfolio contains a large number of museums and galleries, including the Anchorage Museum at Rasmussen Center (2003 - 2009) in Alaska, the Museum of Modern Literature (2002 - 2006) in Marbach am Neckar, the Saint Louis Art Museum in Missouri (2005-2013), Museo Jumex in Mexico City (2009-2013),and ‘The Jewel’ in Almere in The Netherlands (2006)."

"A key characteristic of David Chipperfield’s method is the meticulous and respectful way in which he incorporates historic and environmental elements of context into his designs. His approach draws on many eras of architectural history, placing himself with a continuous tradition."

"'Chipperfield’s work on the Neues Museum in Berlin is a magnificent example of his way of working,' according to the jury in a statement. "Like no other he knows how to combine the old with the new. In his spatial compositions he achieves a delicate balance between color, material, and texture. Chipperfield uses the colors provided by the architectural context and the building materials in an unemphatic yet expressive way.’"

"His use of color either supports or accentuates architectural form. Many examples of the supporting role of color can be found in restoration and rebuilding of the Neues Museum in Berlin; whereas the Joachimstrasse project in Berlin, for example, employs vivid colors to counterbalance and re-modulate the concrete shell."

Previous winners of the prize include Le Corbusier, Donald Judd, Gerrit Rietveld, HEMA, and Bridget Riley.