Jansen supports the Young Talent Architecture Award 2023
Jansen has been supporting the prestigious EUmies Young Talent Architecture Award (YTAA) since 2018. Through this commitment, Jansen promotes the visions of young architects, urban planners and landscape architects. The works submitted by the students reflect their ideas of design, functionality, living space and sustainability and thereby also define our understanding of how we will build, work, live and reside in the future. The commitment of Jansen, as a manufacturer of steel profile systems, is therefore also an expression of interest and curiosity to enter into an active dialogue with these young people and to learn from them.
Just as design plays an important role in the work of the young talents, design is also a focus topic for Jansen. The steel profile systems ensure harmony between function and aesthetics while inspiring international architectural firms.
A platform for young talent
The YTAA awards the best diploma theses of the current final year throughout Europe. A selected jury of experts chooses the three winners (teams or individuals) from the 40 best projects. They each receive a certificate, prize money of € 5,000 and a profile on the renowned platform World Architects. The projects will also be made accessible to a wide audience in a travelling exhibition in several European cities.
The 2023 YTAA Awards Ceremony took place on 29 June at Palazzo Michiel, Venice. The four winning projects are:
- Theme: Peripheral Cartographies, Project: Countermapping the Irish Island of Insibofin, Laura Hurley, School of Engineering and Architecture, Cork.
- Theme: Utopia/political boundaries, Project: Valter Vraca Forum Sarajevo, Dinko Jelecevic,
- Theme: Regeneration of the landscape, Project: Eden Archipelo, María de la O Molina Pérez-Tomé, School of Architecture, Polytechnic University, Madrid
- Theme: Urban regeneration, Project: Earth Bound (Beirut/Lebanon), from the Young Talent Open category, Shaha Raphael, Architectural Association School of Architecture, London
The exhibition of the projects at Palazzo Mora, Venice will last until 26 November 2023.
Background of the EUmies Young Talent Awards
The YTAA was initiated in 2016 by the «Fundació Mies van der Rohe» in cooperation with the EU programme «Creative Europe» and «world architects» as founding partners. Since 2022 the EUmies Awards has included three categories: Architecture, Emerging and Young Talent (YTAA). In even-numbered years, the same jury evaluates the works submitted in the Architecture and Emerging categories, while in odd-numbered years, a different jury is responsible for the Young Talent category. Jansen's sponsorship commitment covers all three awards and will last four years.
The Awards pursue the following goals, among others:
- Recognise and appreciate outstanding achievements in European architecture in conceptual, social, cultural, technical and constructive terms.
- Highlight the European city as a model for smart planning that contributes to a sustainable European economy.
The Mies van der Rohe Pavilion – still pointing the way for architecture today
The Mies van der Rohe Pavilion was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich as the German pavilion for the 1929 World’s Fair in Barcelona – and thus went down in history as the Barcelona Pavilion. The German pavilion served as a self-portrait of the Weimar Republic and was intended to symbolise the efficiency of German industry and craftsmanship through its novelty and precision.
How does the typical «Mies» building style represent itself? His architecture is characterised by strong geometry; new load-bearing structures allow for large windows and a completely new sense of space. About 100 years ago, Mies van der Rohe was already designing buildings that meet today's demands for flexible usability and space efficiency.

© Sasha Stone - Berlin Picture Report - Fundació Mies van der Rohe-Barcelona

© Marcela Grassi - Fundació Mies van der Rohe
Reconstruction – over 50 years later
After the end of the World’s Fair, the pavilion was demolished in 1929 and the usable building materials were sold. Some parts of it can be found today in the old building of the Saxony Parliament in Dresden. To mark the 100th birthday of Mies van der Rohe, the pavilion was reopened in 1986. Between 1983 and 1986, the City of Barcelona, under the direction of architects Cristian Cirici, Fernando Ramos and Ignasi de Solà-Morales, reconstructed the pavilion on the original site according to the original plans.
On 28 April 1987, barely a year after the completion of the reconstruction of the pavilion, EU Commissioner Carlo Ripa di Meana and the Mayor of Barcelona, Pasqual Maragall, signed an agreement to offer the «Mies van der Rohe Prize of the European Communities», which was awarded for the first time in 1988 as the «Mies van der Rohe Prize for European Architecture». Not least through its reconstruction, the pavilion was confirmed as one of the architectural icons of the 20th century.
Masterpiece of modern architecture
The pavilion was touted as an exemplary work of modern architecture, renowned for its weightless and effortless appearance and pioneering architecture throughout the world. With this building, which was to set the style for modern architecture, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe realised two of his fundamental design principles:
- In the «free floor plan», the walls – freed from their load-bearing function – became light room dividers or surfaces in the room.
- The «flowing space» connected the living area with the outdoor area by means of the almost transparent-looking walls with their large glass fronts and filigree steel supports.
The Barcelona Pavilion, an emblematic work of modernism, has been widely studied and interpreted and has inspired the work of several generations of architects.
Today, the Mies van der Rohe Foundation takes care of the preservation of the building. There are several exhibits in the building that show the work of van der Rohe. A documentation centre is also attached to the pavilion.

© Marcela Grassi - Fundació Mies van der Rohe