The New York- and Madrid- based architect Andrés Jaque has been award the 2016 Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Prize for Architecture and Art. The Kiesler Foundation made the announcement today that the Spanish-born, Columbia University and Princeton University Professor of Architecture has been given the prize, which comes with an award of €55,000. His firm, the Office for Political Innovation, describes itself as focusing on the development of a democratically centered architecture. The firm considers objects as material actors within egalitarian societies. In 2014, Jaque won the Silver Lion of the Best Research Project at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale, and in 2015, he won the Young Architect’s Prize at MoMA/PS 1. At PS 1 he created the summer pavilion—called Cosmo—that was designed to serve as a portable water-filtration pant.

The Prize is awarded every two years (since 1998) by the Republic of Austria and the city of Vienna. Previous winners include: Frank Gehry, Judith Barry, Cedric Price, Asymptote (Lise Anne Couture and Hani Rashid), Toyo Ito, and others. This years jury was made up of Benedetta Tagliabue, Peter Bogner, Beatriz Colomina, Hani Rashid, Ben van Berkel, Stella Rollig, and Peter Kogler. Jaques will be given his award at a ceremony a later this year.