Norman Foster Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts 2009

At its meeting in Oviedo, the Jury for the 2009 Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts, made up of Ms. Mercedes Álvarez, Mr. Juan Cruz, Mr. Fernando Delgado, Ms. Lourdes Fernández, Mr. Jorge Fernández Bustillo, Mr. José Fernández-Velasco, Mr. Carlos Fitz-James Stuart Martínez de Irujo, Duke of Huescar, Mr. José Luis Garci, Mr. Guillermo García-Alcalde, Mr. Jordi García Candau, Ms. Rosina Gómez-Baeza, Mr. Juan Carlos Laviana, Ms. Kely Méndez Riestra, Mr. Miguel Muñiz, Ms. Beatriz Pecker, Mr. Benigno Pendás García, Mr. Mariano Puig, Ms. Amelia Valcárcel, chaired by Mr. José Lladó Fernández-Urrutia and with Mr. José Antonio Caicoya acting as secretary, has decided to bestow the 2009 Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts on the British architect and city planner Norman Robert Foster, whose work of universal scope combines aesthetic quality, intellectual reflection and a dialogue between territory and citizens via an original mastery of space, light and matter. Norman Foster, an architect of the global era, brilliantly anticipates the only polis possible in the 21st century, one that is at the service of sustainable development and of personal and social freedom.

Oviedo, 20th May 2009