Boogertman + Partners are honoured and delighted to be the continental winners for Africa and West Asia of the Prix Versailles 2020 for Fourways Mall in the Special Interiors, Shopping Mall category.
The Prix Versailles is a UNESCO initiative started in 2015. It seeks to recognise and reward collective architecture that relates to both an economic activity and people’s everyday lives to challenge and change the perception that commercial and cultural architecture are distinctly different and contradictory practices.
Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, underscores this point: “The Prix Versailles for Commercial Architecture is one of the ways to shine a light on the intersection between creation, art and economics. Investing in culture means promoting a form of universal sustainable development, and drawing on inexhaustible resources - for development, personal fulfilment and, in the end, growth - from our cultural environment.”
The award is supported by many luminaries in the architectural and cultural fields including Sir David Adjaye, Renzo Piano, Ferran Adria, Alondra de la Parra and Phillipe Stark. The criteria applied by the judges encompass innovation, creativity, reflection of local, natural and cultural heritage, and ecological efficiency, as well as the values of social interaction and participation which the United Nations holds in high regard. Winning projects are viewed as a testimonial to extraordinary architecture and de¬sign. They are tributes to the retail and hospitality sectors as a living expression of successful synergy between the economy and culture.
“We thank all of the partners and our client who have supported and encouraged the investment in design that the Fourway Mall embodies. It is an honour to be recognised on this international platform. We don’t design or work with awards in mind as we focus on doing the best design and implementation possible. However, the acknowledgement by esteemed peers for the work and the attention to detail put into the project is gratifying and humbling ” says Hennie Coetzee, Director and Architectural Lead on the Fourways Mall. Fourways Mall will go on to compete for a World Title (Prix Versailles, Interior and Exterior) 2020, in the category of Shopping Malls to be announced in December.