World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize Goes to Bierman Henket, Wessel de Jonge
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Manhattan may be quietly dismantling its modernist icons, but hope springs eternal…in a Dutch sanatorium. The technically and programatically exemplary restoration of the Zonnestraal Sanatorium in North Holland led Bierman Henket Architecten and Wessel de Jonge Architecten to best nominees from 14 countries to win the 2010 World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize. Awarded biennially, the prize acknowledges the growing threats facing significant modern buildings and recognizes the architects and designers who help ensure their long-term survival through new design solutions. Principals from the firms, which are both based in the Netherlands, will be presented with the $10,000 award on November 18 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. In addition to the cash, they’ll each score a mini monument to modernism: a limited-edition Mies van der Rohe-designed Barcelona chair, created by Knoll in honor of the award.
“Zonnestraal is a Modern-Movement gem of concrete and glass, revelatory not only in its own time, but also each time that architects and historians have rediscovered it after years of neglect,” said MoMA’s ever-vigilant modernism monitor Barry Bergdoll, who chaired a jury of architectural scholars that included Kenneth Frampton and Jean-Louis Cohen. “Now that Hubert-Jan Henket‘s and Wessel de Jonge‘s stabilization work on the restoration is complete, it reconfirms Zonnestraal’s standing as one of the most experimental designs in the fervently creative decades of modernism between the two world wars.”
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