Transatlantic Dialogues. EUmies Awards ↔Thomas Jefferson Medal.
January 21, 2026
January 21, 2026
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was the first recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture in 1966. His legacy, rooted in both American and European architectural history, serves as a symbolic bridge for this partnership, highlighting the shared values of innovation and design excellence that underpin both awards.
This collaboration between the EUmies Awards organized by Fundació Mies van der Rohe with the support of Creative Europe (European Commission) and the Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture of the University of Virginia, aims to foster a transatlantic dialogue to enhance the global recognition of architecture’s role in addressing social and environmental responsibilities. It will emphasize key themes such as design and construction, placemaking and community, creativity and innovation, cultural exchange and education, as well as service and civic engagement.
As a key component of this collaboration, the winners of each prize will be invited to share their experiences and insights through a series of lectures and discussions held at the University of Virginia School of Architecture – set in the UNESCO World Heritage Academical Village – and the iconic Barcelona Pavilion originally designed in 1929 by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich. These events will provide a unique opportunity for the laureates to engage with academic and professional communities, as well as the public, offering deeper insights into their design philosophies and the impact of their work. By facilitating this exchange of ideas in two culturally and historically significant venues, the initiative aims to inspire future generations of architects and promote a shared vision of innovative, sustainable architecture on a global scale.
SUMA Arquitectura is an international studio based in Madrid, founded and directed by Elena Orte and Guillermo Sevillano in 2005. It is composed of a multidisciplinary team of professionals involved throughout the design process: architects, engineers, agronomists, landscape designers, sustainability experts, architectural communication specialists, sociologists, and others. They design singular architectures that challenge the limits of traditional practice.
Elena Orte and Guillermo Sevillano graduated as architects from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (ETSAM), and hold master’s degrees in Advanced Architectural Design from the same school and from Columbia University in New York, respectively. They currently teach at the School of Architecture (ETSA) in Madrid and at IAAC in Barcelona. They have participated in various exhibitions (IFEMA Fair Madrid, Matadero, EMVS, Fresh Madrid) and have given lectures in New York, Beijing, Austria, Turkey, Australia, Luxembourg, Buenos Aires and Latvia.
They have won several national and international competitions, including the Gabriel García Márquez Library in Barcelona; the Library and Multipurpose Center of Fuerteventura (both commissioned by local municipalities); 91 public housing units in San Francisco Javier and 73 public housing units in San Sebastián de los Reyes (both for Madrid’s municipal housing company). They have also been selected and awarded in competitions such as the Helsinki Central Library and the Verín Arts Center in Galicia.
They won the EUmies Awards Emerging in 2024 with the Gabriel García Márquez Library. The Library in Barcelona stands out for its expressive timber structure and its urban sensitivity, projecting a warm civic presence in the dense fabric of Sant Martí. Conceived as a cultural heart for the neighborhood, the building uses a continuous, undulating façade to mediate between street scale and institutional identity, while its interior is organized as a luminous, porous sequence of reading rooms that promote openness, accessibility, and social encounter. The structural clarity, careful acoustic control, and strategic use of natural light create an atmosphere that is both serene and civic, turning the library into a contemporary prototype of public architecture where materiality, sustainability, and community-oriented spatial design converge.
Kate Orff, RLA, FASLA, is the Founder of SCAPE. She focuses on retooling the practice of landscape architecture relative to the uncertainty of climate change and creating spaces to foster social life, which she has explored through publications, activism, research, and projects.
Widely recognized as a leading voice in landscape architecture, urban design, and climate adaptation in a global context, she is known for advancing complex, creative, and collaborative work that advances broad environmental and social prerogatives.
Among her many accolades, Kate became the first landscape architect to receive the MacArthur Foundation’s prestigious “genius” grant in 2017. In 2019, she was elevated to the ASLA Council of Fellows, accepted a National Design Award in Landscape Architecture from the Cooper Hewitt, and was named a “Hero of the Harbor” by the Waterfront Alliance. In 2020, she was named Urbanist of the Year by The Architect’s Newspaper. In 2023, she was named to the TIME 100, the magazine’s annual list of the most influential people in the world.
Kate is the author of several books including Toward an Urban Ecology (Monacelli, 2016), co-author, with photographer Richard Misrach, of Petrochemical America (Aperture, 2012), and a contributor to All We Can Save (Penguin Random House, 2020), a bestselling anthology of women climate leaders. She has been profiled extensively for publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, National Geographic, and many more.
Kate graduated with a Bachelor’s in Political and Social Thought from the University of Virginia with Distinction and earned a Master’s in Landscape Architecture from the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University. She is currently the Director of the Urban Design Program, Co-Director of the Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes (CRCL), and Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP). She also sits on the Commission on Accelerating Climate Action for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as the Advisory Board for Urban Ocean Lab, a policy think tank.
Event
Wednesday, January 21, 2026 at 5:00pm ET
University of Virginia School of Architecture
Charlottesville, VA, United States of America
Reservation not necessary
Event
Friday, November 21, 2025 at 18:00 CET
Pavelló Mies van der Rohe
Barcelona, CAT, Europe
Reservations here
