Jean-Louis Cohen, professor at New York University & Collège de France, joins the Golden Trezzini Awards as a juror

News of the Awards

The Jury of the Third Golden Trezzini Awards is joined by an architect and art historian Jean-Louis Cohen, renowned expert on 20th-century architecture and urban planning, as well as cultural interaction between Russia and the West.

“In today’s complex and contradictory world, discovering and supporting architectural designs of exceptional quality is the best response to both indifference and the cult of superficial celebrity,” Dr. Cohen says, “I am convinced that the Golden Trezzini Awards will be true to the extraordinary legacy of Russian architecture, and the ability it has always had of combining local and global creativity.”

Jean-Louis Cohen is an architect, historian and curator with a long track record in research on modern architecture and city planning. Born in Paris in 1949, he has studied architecture at the École Spéciale d'Architecture and at the Unité Pédagogique n° 6 in Paris, graduating in 1973, and has received a PhD in art history from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in 1985, and a habilitation from the same institution in 1992.

After having directed the Architectural research program at the French Ministry of Housing, he held from 1983 to 1996 a research professorship at the School of Architecture Paris-Villemin, and from 1996 to 2004, a chair in town-planning history at the Institut français d'urbanisme of the University of Paris. Since 1994, he holds the Sheldon H. Solow Chair for the History of Architecture at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. Since 2013, he holds a chair at the Collège de France in Paris, and has been a frequent visiting professor at Princeton University’s School of Architecture.

His research activity has focused mainly on 20th-century architecture and urban planning. He has studied in particular German and Russian architectural cultures, colonial situations in Morocco and Algeria, architecture during World War II, and extensively interpreted Le Corbusier's and Mies van der Rohe’s work, as well as Paris planning history. The question of cultural transfer in architecture, urban design, and visual culture is central in his work, and has been discussed in reference to the relationships between Italy, Germany, and France and, with particular emphasis, in reference to the interaction between Russia and the West.

From 1997 to 2003, the French Minister of Culture appointed him to create the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine, a museum, research and exhibition center in the Paris Palais de Chaillot, which opened in 2007. During that period, he directed the Institut français d'architecture and the Musée des monuments français, the main components of the Cité.

He has been a curator for numerous exhibitions including, for example, “The Lost Vanguard”, at the Museum of Modern Art (2007); “Paris-Moscou” (1979) and the centennial show “L'aventure Le Corbusier” (1987), both at the Centre Georges Pompidou, or “Le Corbusier, tainy tvorchestva,” at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow (2012), and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm (2013).

Jean-Louis Cohen is an elected member of the Akademie der Künste, in Berlin, the Russian Academy of Architecture, in Moscow, the Accademia di San Luca, in Rome, and the Académie d’architecture in Paris. He has been a research fellow at the National Gallery of Art’s Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (1987), and a Getty scholar at the Getty Research institute (1992-93). Has curated the French pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, for which he received the special mention of the Jury.

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 in St. Petersburg since 2018, supported by the Representative Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in St. Petersburg, the Embassy of Russia in Switzerland, the Embassy of Switzerland in Russia, the Consulate General of Switzerland in St. Petersburg, Glavgosexpertiza of Russia, Architecture Council of Moscow, the Committee on Urban Planning and Architecture (KGA), the State Committee on Control, Use and Protection of Historical and Cultural Landmarks (KGIOP), the World Club of St. Petersburgers, the Union of Architects of Russia, the Union of Renovators of Russia, St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering (SPbGASU), and a number of other organisations and institutions.

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 Golden Trezzini’s work shall be coordinated by the International Council, chaired by Mikhail Piotrovsky, President of the World Club of St. Petersburgers and General Director of the State Hermitage. The Awards Jury includes 180+ experts from 29 countries.

The winners will be awarded with Domenico Trezzini golden figurines on December 1 in St. Petersburg. The best projects submitted by the participants of the 2020 Golden Trezzini will be showcased at an exhibition in the Peter and Paul Fortress, and then added to the collection of the State Museum of St. Petersburg History.

Entries for the Third 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 Golden Trezzini website users are welcome to vote for their preferred projects via Facebook, giving them a chance to win Premio del Pubblico Award. 40+ projects are approved for participation at the moment.

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. Official partner of the Awarding ceremony is LenRusStroy Building Corporation. Partner of the Awarding ceremony is Ganga Group. To see a full list of the Awards partners please check https://goldtrezzini.ru/en/partners-of-the-golden-trezzini-awards-2020/.