BETON21 Award to Valentin Bearth

The architecture studio of Prof. Valentin Bearth, Accademia di Architettura, has won the prestigious award BETON21. With prize money of 50'000 CHF, it is attributed to beton projects of recent edification, which best express the lines and nature of Swiss contemporary architecture. The studio of Prof. Bearth, Bearth & Deplazes, has been recognized with this prize for the construction of the technical department of Canton Graubünden, placed on the Bernina pass, inaugurated on 2019.

The jury was confronted with 175 projects of the highest standard, which compelled it to formulate specific criteria. In particular, it has concentrated on the contextualisation of the building in the landscape, its functional nature, and the conditions in which beton was applied. The winning project of the architecture studio Bearth & Deplazes especially convinced the jury because of its position, at the sum of the highest alp pass in Switzerland, and of the use of beton as a material which imposes simple geometric forms, which best expresses both the functional qualities of the construction and its emplacement in the landscape. According to the jury, "it is not possible to better illustrate how architecture, with simple means, can nobilitate an ordinary building".

An award prize for emerging young architects was also assigned. Among 20 participants, this was attributed to Accademia Alumni Nastasja Inches-Geleta and Matteo Inches for their Palazzo Pioda in Locarno.

More information about the award can be found here.

Prof. Valentin Bearth introduces his project with this video.