Jerome Gouadain, Secretary General of Prix Versailles (pictured above), has just announced in Paris that a prestigious prize for students of architecture around the world has chosen to focus on the city of Liverpool for 2018. This is the first time that the Prix Versailles has decided to offer an award based on a particular modern city and will be followed by other cities from 2019.
The aim is to bring the best and brightest young minds throughout the architectural world to support the efforts of developers and planners in Liverpool to become a world-famous city for the quality of its sustainable architecture. This prize instantly puts Liverpool’s World Heritage Site (WHS) and football culture onto an international architectural stage.
The call is for students to send in ideas, designs and drawings about how they would take the large expanse of open docks in the WHS of Central and North Docks Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City and develop it in such a way as to protect the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the UNESCO site. It also calls for ideas for a new FIFA-standard football stadium that would be the most eco-friendly in the world and also be able to sit alongside the WHS without destroying its OUV.
This competition is supported by the world-renowned International Union of Architects and UNESCO and the decision to focus on the city of Liverpool came out of the recent Engage Liverpool series of seminars entitled ‘Liverpool UNESCO World Heritage Site: A Status Worth Fighting For?’ involving UNESCO speakers talking about the World Heritage Site. This international prize will add to the series of events celebrating Liverpool’s 10th Anniversary of being European Capital of Culture 2008 and will build up to a massive awards ceremony at UNESCO HQ in Paris on 15th May 2018: Visit Liverpool 2018 website and Culture Liverpool 2018 website
Read the Prix Versailles Press Release HERE 18.12.17
Read the Engage Liverpool Press Release HERE 18.12.17
Read the Student Competition Regulations HERE 18.12.17
Watch the 2017 Prix Versailles World Ceremony below: