A "Danish" building won the Dutch Building Award 2006! At the Gala Dinner Monday night February 5, Kim Herforth Nielsen, Principal Architect of Danish architects 3XN, received the Dutch Building Award 2006 (Nederlandse Bouwprijs 2006). The Award for Netherland's best building 2006 was given for the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, and this was the building's most prestigious recognition yet.
A hundred projects were considered, nineteen were nominated for the six categories of awards such as Materials, Systems etc. For the Building Award, five projects were nominated, each of them of very high standards. In the end, the jury decided for the "Danish" Muziekgebouw.
"I am truly amazed and grateful", says Kim Herforth Nielsen. "The Muziekgebouw was one of 3XN's first international projects, and we put a lot of effort into achieving a piece of unique architecture that places the client and the end-user in the heart of the process. This approach was already our brand in Denmark, so our challenge was to keep insisting on this when crossing the borders."
"When the Music building opened in 2005, the entire team felt that we had succeeded in this goal - the Dutch felt this was a Scandinavian building, while we thought that we had concluded a Dutch building! I guess the truth lies somewhere in between," Kim smiles. "The Dutch Building Award is the finest recognition imaginable to prove that we have reached our goal - to bring our user-centred, multiple approaches outside 'home base', and to be able to serve clients internationally this way."
The Muziekgebouw has a splendid position on a pier head very close to central Amsterdam, surrounded on three sides by the river IJ. The jury President, jhr. dr. P.A.C. Beelaerts, praised - among other things - the way in which the parties involved have succeeded in realising a building with such irradiation, considering also the budget, which seen in an international perspective has been rather restricted. "This is absolutely image-strengthening for the construction sector", Beelaerts said. After the ceremony, one of the other nominees said to Kim, that Amsterdammers were happy to finally 'beat' Rotterdam - "now we change the balance, Rotterdam always used to get the attention," he said.
The Music Building opened in the summer of 2005, and has ever since received a large attention. It has already been awarded internationally with the ULI Europe Award 2006, the Dedalo Minosse Award 2006 and the LEAF AWARD 2006.