Indian Architect Samira Rathod Wins Special Mention in the Third arcVision Prize

Bengaluru, April 11, 2015

Italcementi Group Names Winner of the Award for Architecture by Women

Angela Deuber is the winner of the third arcVision Prize – Women and Architecture, an international architecture award for female designers instituted by the Italcementi Group. The arcVision Prize was announced at i.lab, Italcementi’s Research and Innovation Centre in Italy on March 6^th 2015.

In line with the Italcementi entrepreneurial vision, the arcVision Prize aims to promote ideas and projects with a strong focus on innovation and functionality that are both sustainable and socially significant. It puts the accent on the ‘female’ vision of architecture, to regenerate and design existing and future architecture. The third edition boasted a final nominee list of 21 designers from 16 countries from Spain, India, Mexico, Italy, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, USA, Japan, Egypt, South Africa, Thailand, Morocco, Australia, Greece, Jordan.

Architect Angela Deuber was chosen by the jury, composed as in the past editions by outstanding professionals from architecture and socio-economic fields:Shaikha Al Maskari (Board Member of the Arab International Women’s Forum-AIWF), Vera Baboun (Mayor of Bethlehem),Odile Decq (Owner of the Odile Decq architecture firm), Yvonne Farrell (Co-Founder of Grafton Architects) Louisa Hutton (Co-Founder of the Sauerbruch Hutton architectural practice), Suhasini Mani Ratnam (an Indian actress, producer and writer), Samia Nkrumah (President of the Kwame Nkrumah Pan-African Center), Benedetta Tagliabue (Owner of the Miralles Tagliabue EMBT architectural firm), Martha Thorne (Director of the Pritzker Prize, regarded as the ‘Nobel Prize’ of architecture). The jury recognised the directions of the winner’s architecture and at the same time successfully synthesized the important aspects of structural construction, judicious use of materials, involvement and concern for the social role of women architects.

The Indian Architect Samira Rathod won a special mention from the jury along with Kate Otten (South Africa) and Patama Roonrakwit (Thailand).

The aim of the arcVision Prize is to enhance the figure of the female designer in contemporary world architecture, with a special focus on the qualities a modern architect requires to develop originality in her profession as she pursues advanced, non-conventional solutions and develops a particularly strong and mature sensitivity to the human and social context.

The prize is a two-week research project and workshop (during Milan Design Week, April 2015) at i.lab, the Italcementi Group Research & Innovation Center in Bergamo designed by Richard Meier, which also acts as a center for the divulgation of innovative technologies and methodologies. The winner also receives a cash prize (50,000 Euros), part of which may be devolved to social projects, at her discretion.

Samira Rathod established her studio SRDA in 2000, after graduating in Mumbai and achieving a Master in Architecture at the University of Illinois. However small her firm is she’s been able to complete original buildings for the arts with a careful attention to details and material, from the interiors to the structures and surfaces, using concrete, glass and metal in a kind of ‘sculptural’ matching of forms and functions. The Baroda Art gallery is in fact an artist’s studio but also is space for show and the visitors to the gallery can have a glimpse on the artist at work or vice versa. The House in Amhedabad also plays with the concepts of privacy and transparency of living, by revealing a possible public dimension also for private housing.
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