The International Committee of Architectural Critics CICA is calling entries for publishers, editors, curators and authors to submit their publications for consideration for the 10th CICA Awards 2020 by 30th November 2019. 

Award winners will be announced during the UIA XXVII World Congress of Architecture to be held in Rio de Janeiro from July 19th to 23rd, 2020.

The Awards fall into four categories: 

"Bruno Zevi CICA Book Award": For published books on architectural criticism, theory and history 

“Pierre Vago CICA Journalism Award”: For an article of architectural criticism for individual, institutional or society magazines, newspapers and journals 

"Julius Posener CICA Exhibition Catalogue Award": For a critical text, preface or introduction published in an exhibition catalogue or supporting publication produced for an architectural exhibition 

"Marina Waisman CICA Digital Communication Award": For Non-print Media and Publications

Award Parameters 

Publications issued between April 2017 and November 2019 are eligible for submission in any or all four categories. All material submitted for consideration by the Jury must be original, free of any copyright issues and as published (manuscripts or proof are not acceptable).

For the first phase of submissions, are to be submitted: 

PDF files of the list of contents and selected chapters (in the case of books/catalogues); 

PDF files of the articles in the case of journals and website links in the case of non-print communication.

The sender must indicate to which the category he is submitting the publication. 

On this basis, a shortlist will be announced on the 15th of January 2020. 

For the second phase of submissions, for the shortlisted submissions there are to be submitted five copies of each publication to the address below. 

Publications will not be returned. Award winning items may be displayed at the UIA Congress. The verdicts of the International Jury are final.

Eligible media 

Books, journals, catalogues and digital media and publications can be submitted by publishers, editors, curators and authors.

Address for Submissions 

The five copies of all submissions should be sent or delivered at the publisher’s or author’s own expense by 15th February 2020 to: 

Prof. Dr. Wilfried Wang 

O'Neil Ford Centennial Professor in Architecture 

The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture 

310 Inner Campus Drive, Stop B7500 

Austin, TX 78712-1009 

USA 

For further information contact: Prof. Dr. Wilfried Wang: [email protected].

The Jury

Karen Eicker, South Africa

Louise Noelle, Gras Mexico

Suha Ozkan, Turkey

Xing Ruan, China/Australia

Joseph Rykwert, United Kingdom

Wilfried Wang, Germany/USA (Coordinator)

On CICA 

The International Committee of Architectural Critics CICA has, since it was established in Mexico City in 1978, been closely associated with the World Congresses of the International Union of Architects. 2020 is no exception and a CICA session is being planned for the UIA Congress to be held in Rio de Janeiro. 

The inaugural meeting of CICA was held in the Joan Miró Foundation in July 1979 when Bruno Zevi (Rome) was elected the first CICA President with Pierre Vago (France), Dennis Sharp (UK) Julius Posener (Germany) and Jorge Glusberg (Argentina) as Directors. 

The current President is Joseph Rykwert and CICA Board Members are François Chaslin (France), Manuel Cuadra (Germany), Louise Noelle Gras (Mexico), Süha Özkan (Turkey) and Yasmin Shariff (UK). 

CICA has held critical sessions since, in Warsaw, Cairo, Brighton, Rome, Vienna, Sydney, Barcelona, Istanbul, Paris, New York, London, Gelsenkirchen, Beijing, Berlin, Rio, Buenos Aires, Kuwait, Vancouver, Torino, Tokyo, Durban and Seoul.

On the CICA Awards 

The CICA Book Awards were re-established in 2005 with the names of three founding members. 

Previous CICA Awards have included the following works: 

1980: Manfredi Nicoletti, for L’Architettura della caverna (Bari 1980). 

1985: Alan Colquhoun, for Modern Architecture and Historical Change (MIT Press 1981). 

1987: Roger Connah, for Writing Architecture: Fantomas Fragments Fictions (Rakennuskirja 1989). 

2005: Dalibor Vesely, for Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation (MIT Press, 2004). 

2008: Murray Fraser with Joe Kerr, for Architecture and the ‘Special Relationship’: The American Influence on Post- War British Architecture (Routledge 2007). 

2011: Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani for Die Stadt im 20. Jahrhundert. Visionen, Entwürfe, Gebautes (Wagenbach 2010)

Awards for Critical Journalism and for catalogue prefaces have been made, among others, to the following writers, teachers and critics: William Curtis, Peter Davey, Arthur Drexler, James Marston Fitch, Kenneth Frampton, Heinrich Klotz, Jean François Lejeune, Henry Vicente Garrido, Aydan Balamir, Abilio Guerra, Paul Larmour, Shane O’Toole, Roberto Segre and Rowan Moore.

Top image: Theory 22 conference with Manfredo Tafuri as part of the 22 Practice Theory and Politics in Architecture 22-lecture series organized by Diana Agrest Spring 1974. Image courtesy of The Charnel-House.

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