Winner of BIG SEE Architecture 2022 with the Niki Loft project built in Milan. (European Award)

The BIG SEE Awards were launched commercially initially as regional awards to systematically explore and promote South Eastern Europe’s creative and potential. With the ambition to connect creativity beyond regional borders, they have surpassed regional cadres and have gone international by extending the competition to all of Europe. Over 1000 projects have been selected. I was invited to participate in February with my Niki Loft project made in Milan. I received notice that the project had reached the final until it was elected winner of the Big See Awards Architecture 2022, residential interior section. The awards ceremony took place on May 5 in Lubljana in Slovenia with a ceremony in a gala evening. in the present afternoon I have my project to the public. It is an academic award as the organization of the competition is coordinated by the University of Architecture of Ljubljana and other Austrian, Croatian and German universities. Here the jury: https://bigsee.eu/awards/

Winner of the Pipa International Project “Jury Critics Choice” Awards with the “Home Plate project” Headquarters of the World Baseball Softball Confederation that I made in Switzerland. (World Award).

This is the greatest recognition I have ever received because it is extended to the whole world, I am still in disbelief of this. The PIPA International Project Awards invited me to nominate my project of the institutional headquarters of the Baseball Softball Confederation made in Switzerland. 120 projects were selected from around the world. In March I received communication that the project had been selected by the Jury as a Finalist and that I would have to go to Milan on 11 May to exhibit the project in front of the international jury and stay until 12 May for the ceremony with Gala evening at the open, during which it gathers elected winners. The Jury was made up of world-renowned architects and members of some of the best-known and largest architectural firms in the world. Specifically, the jury was composed of: _Leonardo Cavalli (Co-Founder of Studio “One Works” and member of the Italian Institute of Architects) _Greg Truen (Co Founder of the South African Architecture studio “Saota”) _Anabel Fernández Rubio (senior partner of the renowned American firm and historian KPF: Kohn Pederesen Fox Associates), perhaps the largest architecture firm in the world. _But above all (for me) by Michel Rojkind (founder of the innovative Mexican studio “Rojkind Arquitectos”). Not only is he one of the architects I have always admired most but he is also considered by Forbes to be among the most influential architects on the planet. When I was nominated as a finalist I was very perplexed and embittered. In fact, the finalists were divided into 4 thematic categories: Retail – Hotel – Residential – Public Space. My project was included in Public Space. In fact it had nothing of belonging to a public space, my membership project consisted of an institutional and executive headquarters, therefore “offices”. I could not understand the reason for this insertion so much so that I feared it would end there, simply with a bureaucratic error that was a real off topic. In addition to this, my project was 1500 square meters and the other finalists abundantly exceeded 30,000 square meters. Huge projects and much more expensive than mine. However, I went to Milan and showed my project to the jury who really appreciated every single detail: the story of the Concept Idea that is the basis of this project that talks about the History and Future of this sport, of Elements and Moments, of Heroic figures (players) that I have crystallized in space, form and function. They also invited projects related to the theme of how the armchairs I designed (made by the Molteni Group) and the lamps I designed (made by Viabizzuno).

I had sensed that my presentation had gone very well having perceived the enthusiasm of the Jury who had not spared the compliments right away, but I was not a possibility since my project was not a public space. During the Gala evening it was announcing my Home Plate project – WBSC Headquarter had won the first prize “Jury Critics Choice” as reported in the press release: The jury awarded a special Critics Award to Home Plate Project – WBSC Headquarters (Pully, Switzerland). This is perhaps the most valuable prize because it embraces all the categories that the individual winners linked to the theme have instead. Perhaps the winner among the winners. Today the project is still exhibited at the BAM in Milan.

Cs – Enrico Muscioni