Striking Concert Hall Wins Europe's Top Architecture Prize

Last Friday, the European Union's biennially awarded architecture prize, the Mies Van der Rohe Award 2015, officially went to the new Philharmonic Hall in Sczecin, Poland, a jagged white structure that's already been shortlisted for the Design Museum's "Design of the Year" award. Completed last year, the 140,000-square-foot building was designed by Spanish firm Barozzi/Veiga and contains a symphony hall for 1,000 guests, a chamber music hall for 200 guests, as well as additional room for exhibitions and conferences. Rising on a historical site that was destroyed during World War II, the Philharmonic Hall's arresting form takes after the city's original pitched-roof residential buildings and neo-Gothic churches. This symbolism of urban renewal won over the jury.

· Philarmonic Hall [European Union Prize]
· The 15 Finest New Buildings, According to the Design Museum [Curbed]