To mark its 50th anniversary, the IAKS has honoured important personalities from five decades of international sports facility development in a special ceremony. An international jury presented the All-Time Award to outstanding sports facilities.
IAKS Hall of Fame celebrates 13 personalities
A total of 12 individuals and Koelnmesse as an organisation have been inducted into the IAKS Hall of Fame. All of them have rendered special services to sports facilities development or the IAKS over the last 50 years.
Honours have gone to Prof. Frieder Roskam, Dr Willi Weyer, Gert Abelbeck, Roswitha Thibes, Ernst Hirt, Dr Pino Zoppini, Prof. Dr Carlos Vera Guardia, Siegfried Hoymann, Werner Krems, Peter Gattermann, Prof. Geraint John, Bill Stonor and Koelnmesse.
IAKS All-Time Award pays tribute to outstanding sports facilities
The IAKS All-Time Award commends outstanding sports facilities of the last few decades not only for their architectural and operative excellence, but also because of the special importance attached to sustainability and social factors.
The award has gone to the National Aquatics Center (Water Cube) in Beijing; National Stadium (Bird’s Nest) in Beijing; Olympic Memorial Arena (M-Wave) in Nagano; Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona; Olympic Stadium in Berlin; Holmenkollen Ski Jump in Oslo; Richmond Olympic Oval in Vancouver; and Oberhaching College of Physical Education near Munich.
IAKS celebrates its anniversary
The festivities surrounding the 50th anniversary of the IAKS took place at the beginning of the 24th IAKS Congress during FSB at Koelnmesse.
Dr Stefan Kannewischer is the new President of the IAKS
After 18 years as President, Dr Stephan J. Holthoff-Pförtner (pictured at the top of this story) handed over the reins to Dr Stefan Kannewischer during the IAKS General Meeting on 28 October 2015. The Swiss is Managing Director of Kannewischer Management AG and Kannewischer Collection.
IAKS Awards
The golden envelopes have been opened and the winners announced for the bi-annual IAKS Awards. The jury conferred 3 IOC/IAKS Awards in Gold, 7 IOC/IAKS Awards in Silver and 14 IOC/IAKS Awards in Bronze. 4 projects received the IPC/IAKS Distinction for accessible sports facilities.
For the IOC/IPC/IAKS Architecture and Design Award for Students and Young Professionals the jury selected four winners and awarded 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 2 Bronzes.
There were 129 entries from 30 countries. IAKS awarded Silver to the Bolshoy Ice Dome (Ruben Reddy Architects & SIC Mostovic), which was a star in Sochi, and to Arena Fonte Nova (Schultz Architekten, Tetra Arquitetura), a host stadium in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and to the London Aquatics Centre (Zaha Hadid Architects).
Friends Arena, Beira-Rio Stadium, Stade Leo Lagrange, Bossard Arena, Luanda Multisports Pavilion and the London 2012 Shooting Venue were awarded Bronze.
The jury awarded an IPC/IAKS Distinction to Bolshoy Ice Dome, stating
The venue provides a range of options for disabled spectators visiting the venue. The ramps in particular are useful during egress or when there is an emergency evacuation. This venue sets new standards of accessibility in Russia, providing plentiful accessible toilets and wide easy-to-manoeuvre circulation spaces.
The awards were handed out at a ceremony as part of FSB in Cologne.