This Semper Prize is awarded by the Saxon Academy of Arts to architects based in Germany whose work is characterized by the highest artistic standards, the environmentally sustainable use of natural resources in construction, and an outstandingly innovative approach. It also marks outstanding achievements (including lifetime achievements) in urban development, civil engineering, and outdoor planning.

The award is named after Gottfried Semper (1803–1879), one of Europe’s foremost architects, who paved the way from nineteenth-century historicism to modernism. In his role as an influential figure between tradition and modernity both in Germany and abroad, an architect with experience of all types of buildings, and a highly educated theoretician, Gottfried Semper wrote European architectural history.

The Semper Prize is presented by the Saxon Academy of Arts to highlight pioneering projects underlining the link between architecture and the environment in a synthesis of aesthetics and ecology.

Winners are selected in camera by a jury consisting of fellows of the architecture class and the President of the Academy. The jury puts forward nominations, draws up a shortlist, and then decides the winner.

Until 2015, the Semper Prize was awarded by the Saxon Academy of Arts together with the LaNU Saxon Regional Foundation for Nature and the Environment and the energy corporation Vattenfall (the sponsor), and was accompanied by a cheque for €25,000. In 2019, the award was presented for the first time without any prize money or a sponsor.

In 2019, the Semper Prize was awarded to Düsseldorf architect Christoph Ingenhoven. “Like no other German architect, Christoph Ingenhoven champions an architectural aesthetic that is uncompromisingly derived from exceptional ecological ideals. His structures have been erected worldwide and meet the highest standards of sustainable construction while using a consistently independent architectural language. Since he went into business in 1985 at the age of twenty-five, Ingenhoven’s work has unswervingly followed a course of creating buildings which are not just climate-friendly, resource-saving and space-saving, yet also beautiful.” (From the jury’s evaluation)

Press kit on the Semper Prize 2019

2024 wurde der Schweizer Architekt Roger Boltshauser mit dem Semperpreis ausgezeichnet. Die Preisverleihung fand im Blockhaus in Dresden, Archiv der Avantgarden - Egidio Marzona der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden statt. Am Tag der Preisverleihung wurde die Ausstellung des Preisträgers im ZfBK-Zentrum für Baukultur Sachsen im Kulturpalast Dresden mit dem Preisträger und Mitgliedern der Jury eröffnet.

Dokumentation:
Pressegespräch und Ausstellung zum Semperpreis 2024
(PDF, 27.09.2024)
Ausstellungseröffnung und Preisverleihung
(youtube, 5 Min)
Dokumentation der Preisverleihung
(youtube, 17 Min)