The five Mies van der Rohe Award 2019 finalists have been announced, with a public space created inside an abandoned psychiatric centre and a revamped 1960s housing block making the list.
Awarded biannually, the Mies van der Rohe Award recognises the best piece of European architecture completed in the past two years. The projects in the running for this year's award come from Spain, Germany, France, Belgium and Albania.
Architecten de Vylder Vinck Taillieu was named a finalist for PC Caritas. Photo by Filip Dujardin.
The jury said this year's award recognised built works that "allow people to find different ways of using spaces and transform them into different places".
The five finalists are Skanderbeg Square by 51N4E, PC Caritas by Architecten de Vylder Vinck Taillieuin, Terracehouse Berlin by Brandlhuber + Emde, Plasencia Auditorium and Congress Centre by SelgasCano, and Transformation of 530 dwellings, by Frédéric Druot Architecture, Lacaton & Vassal Architectes and Christophe Hutin Architecture. P51N4E's re-design of Skanderbeg Square is a finalist. Photo by Filip Dujardin.
This year is the first time a project in Albania has been named a finalist, with the Brussels-based practice p51N4E's re-design of Skanderbeg Square in Tirana on the list.
The architecture studio has turned the square into a pedestrian space with a mosaic of paving formed of stone slabs from around the country. Twelve gardens filled with trees encircle the public space.
"The...