Golden Trezzini Awards International Council welcomes James M. Bradburne, head of Pinacoteca di Brera

News of the Awards

James M. Bradburne, General Director of the Pinacoteca di Brera and Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, has joined the International Council of the Golden Trezzini Awards.

“The built environment is fundamental to our shared humanity”, Dr. Bradburne says, “And as the mission of the Built Environment Trust states: ‘We recognise the power of the built world to shape lives and communities, and we believe that potential can be harnessed to improve the world we live in.’ I currently live in Florence, which is a clear example of how architecture plays a major role in the built environment, and shapes how we preserve the history of social organisation long after technologies and practices have changed. As Richard Rogers said in 2017: ‘Technology is the raw material of architectural expression, the equivalent of words in poetry. Without a proper understanding of words there is no poetry, and architecture starts from an understanding of technology, materials, the process of construction and a sense of place.’ I am honoured to join the jury for the Golden Trezzini Awards, which themselves represent a long and important history of critical thinking about the built environment.”

James M. Bradburne is an Anglo-Canadian architect, designer and museologist who has designed world expo pavilions, science parks and international art exhibitions. He was educated in Canada and in England, graduating in architecture at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and receiving his doctorate in museology from the University of Amsterdam. Over the past thirty years he has produced exhibitions and organised research projects and conferences for UNESCO, national governments, private foundations and museums in many parts of the world. From 2006 until March 2015 was the director general of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, and since October 2015 he is Director General of the Pinacoteca di Brera and the Biblioteca Braidense. He is also one of the founders of Circles Squared, an American non-profit foundation dedicated to educational innovation as a means of transforming museum management.

The Pinacoteca di Brera is the one of the most important public galleries for paintings in Milan, Italy. Created by Napoleon, it contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings, and was for its first decades part of the Brera Academy, with which it shares the Palazzo Brera. The collection includes masterpieces by Raphael, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Donato Bramante, Mantegna, Piero della Francesca, Carpaccio, Tintoretto, Caravaggio, Rubens and Hayez, as well as an important collection of 20^th century Italian modern art.

The Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense is one of the largest libraries in Italy, and is the legal deposit of all publications from Lombardy. It has the status of a national library and is today one of the 47 Italian State libraries. Pinacoteca di Brera and the Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense are among the first Italian museums to be granted partial autonomy, with the mission of improving the management of the museum’s human and economic resources, finding new sources of support, and re-establishing Italy’s tradition of excellence in display, research, education and public services. The fusion of the gallery and the library is an innovative step towards bringing the twin traditions closer together.

The International Golden Trezzini Awards for Architecture and Design is named after Domenico Trezzini (1670—1734), the first architect of St. Petersburg and the founder of Petrine Baroque. The Awards has been held since 2018. The motto of the Awards is “Architecture as Art.” The Awards are intended to acknowledge and promote architectural and designer projects that amount to works of art.

The Honorary Chairman of the International Council of the Awards is Mikhail Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage, St. Petersburg. The Council uniquely includes directors of a number of leading art museums of Russia, the USA, Italy, Germany, Austria, Sweden, and Finland.

Entries for the Thirds International Golden Trezzini Awards for Architecture and Design can be submitted at www.goldtrezzini.ru/en/ till October 15, 2020. Participation is free of charge.

The General Partner of the Golden Trezzini Awards is the State Museum of St. Petersburg History. The System Partner is RBI Group. Partner of a Special nomination is YIT. The Official Awarding Partner is LenRusStroy Building Corporation. To see a full list of the Awards partners, please, check: https://goldtrezzini.ru/en/partners-of-the-golden-trezzini-awards-2020/.