Suprised? OMA wins with their design for the Dutch embassy in Berlin the Mies van der Rohe award, the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture. The prize is granted every two years for a project in recognition of its conceptual, technical and constructional qualities. Some 242 projects were chosen by a group of independent international experts and European architects' associations. A shortlist was drawn of 33 project, out of which the 5 finalist were chosen. The jury, Aaron Betsky, Stefano Boeri, Eduard Bru, Roberto Collovà, Mohsen Mostafavi, Suha Özkan, Francis Rambert, Kazuyo Sejima and chaired by Zaha Hadid, choose Rem Koolhaas' embasy in favour of Foster's head office for Swiss Re (London), Future System's design for the department store Selfrigdes in Birmingham, Souto Moura's football station in Braga and Martinez Lapeña – Torres' esplanade in Barcelona.
There is also a prize for 'Emerging Architect under 40', and guess who won that prize NL Architects for their Basketbar in Utrecht.
Are Dutch architects really that good or do we have a superb lobbyist for Dutch architecture in the person of Aaron Bestky, the director of the NAi?