Richard England on Kazakhstan competition jury

Architect Richard England is back from Kazakhstan where he formed part of a jury in connection with the international competition for the Olympic Stadium Project in the new capital city, Astana.

The competition featured projects by a number of architects of international stature such as Skidmore Owings & Merrill, Kiyonori Kitutake, Justus Dahinden, Agustin Hernandez and others.

After three days of deliberation, the jury awarded the first prize to the American firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill.

The firm is well known, having been behind the IBM headquarters building in Dallas, the UBS Trade centre in Stamford, the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Hong Kong, Canary wharf buildings in London as well as the King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah.

The government of Kazakhstan had, earlier this year, invited Prof. England to be one of six participants in an international competition for a new concert opera house in Astana. The other five entries were by Manfredi Nicoletti, Massimiliano Fuksas, Gustav Peichl, Kurt Akermann and Zublena.

The entries were presented earlier this year and the first prize was awarded to Manfredi Nicoletti.

Prof. England has also been appointed to sit on the jury of the international Iakov Chernikhov Competition for young architects, to be held in Kiev, Ukraine early next year. Other members of the jury are Manfredi Nicoletti, Massimiliano Fuksas, Toyo Ito and Zaha Hadid.