Gala

More than 350 guests attended the festive DETAIL Prize 2011 awards ceremony on the evening of January 19 in Schloss Nymphenburg. After a stylish reception in the historic rooms given by the management and staff of DETAIL, Dr. Dominik Wichmann, the editor-in-chief of Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazine got the evening rolling with an entertaining but critical talk on the status of architecture and the role of architects in society. The fact that the audience spontaneously applauded a passage Wichmann delivered about amateurish representations of highly complex connections, citing Stuttgart 21 as an example, showed how much the guests identified with his talk. Subsequently, it was time once again to speak the words: “And the winner is ...” The audience followed the brief descriptions of the inpidual nominations in the different categories with baited breath. Then the winning project was announced and the prizes were presented to the representatives of the respective offices. An anecdote told by Markus Allmann that Wichmann related to conclude his talk formed a perfect transition to the informal part of the evening. Based on a survey conducted by the dating agency “Parship,” the occupation of architect is the sexiest profession. With this in mind, the guests ate, listened to music, and engaged in casual conversation, enjoying themselves immensely into the small hours of the morning.