Italian architect Pier Carlo Bontempi has been selected as the 12th recipient of the Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame. Lauded for his “lifelong contribution to the human city and classical tradition,” Bontempi has dedicated much of his work in the “search for common ground between the classical and the modern; the two most powerful architectural ideas of our century,” as jury member Demetri Porphyrios described.
“Bontempi’s work illustrates why the idea of the traditional city and its architecture are referred to as ‘the original green,’” said Michael Lykoudis, Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of the Notre Dame School of Architecture. “His buildings, seamlessly woven into their urban environments, demonstrate the principles of the new classicism and urbanism. Their durable construction, adaptive interior space and sensitive urban siting make them exemplars of architecture as an art of conservation and investment as opposed to consumption and waste.”
A native of Fornovo di Taro, Parma, Italy, Bontempi studied architecture at the University of Florence and has taught at Florence University, the École Spéciale d’Architecture of Paris, Syracuse University of New York in Florence, the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Stuttgart, and the Prince of Wales Institute of Architecture in London. His studio works on new traditional architecture and architectural projects including restoration, rebuilding, and town planning. His award-winning international work includes a block recovery plan in Parma’s historic center, as well as the Place de Toscane and the “Quartier du Lac” resort in Val d’Europe near Paris.
Established in 2003 through the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, the Richard H. Driehaus Prize represents the most significant recognition for classicism in the contemporary built environment. Recipients receive $200,000 and a bronze miniature of the Choregic Monument of Lysikrates. Bontempi will be honored during a March 29 ceremony in Chicago.
Past winners include Thomas H. Beeby, Michael Graves, Léon Krier, Robert A.M. Stern, and more.
The Jury:
- Adele Chatfield-Taylor (President of the American Academy in Rome)
- Robert Davis (Developer and Founder of Seaside, Florida)
- Paul Goldberger (Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic and writer for Vanity Fair)
- Léon Krier (Inaugural Driehaus Prize Laureate)
- Demetri Porphyrios (2004 Driehaus Prize Laureate and Principal, Porphyrios Associates, London)
- Witold Rybczynski (Meyerson Professor Emeritus of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania and former architecture critic for Slate)
News via the University of Notre Dame.
