A weekend retreat, an airport, a bird-watching station, a shopping mall – just some of the 264 entries for this year’s award. Our focus was again on aesthetics and construction, projects where precise detail supports an outstanding overall concept. Many questions occupied the jury, not least how to compare such broad diversity. Indeed what is the place of aesthetic detail in today’s architecture? After much debate the award went to a building that displays surprisingly little detail, a physically and visually robust structure that is fully adaptable to the users’ needs. The life cycle of the components becomes the architectural strategy. The detail remains open and reversible.