More than an Award, a Prophecy
60 years of prizes to innovative architectures
Francesca Limana
What is an award for, besides bouncing the awardee’s ego off several walls like a ball on a padel court? Try a short survey, even a cross-sectional one, because the awards themselves are cross-sectional. There are awards for all tastes and all areas. Among the most original certainly is the IG NOBEL Prize, sponsored by the U.S. humorous scientific journal Annals of Improbable Research (AIR). But back to the function of an award and the survey invitation I suggested at the beginning. Certainly, most respondents will tell you that an award, especially if it is cash, is a stimulus, an incentive, or a confidence boost to lay the groundwork for a new job, project or research. Others, however, will tell you that being awarded means having the public opportunity to thank everyone with whom they have accomplished what is being awarded. But in one way or another, this acknowledgment represents the hope deep inside all awardees: once recognized/discovered, they will experience a new epiphany with renewed visibility, always for the benefit of new projects, ideas and research.
