The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum just announced their annual selection of ‘Europe’s emerging young architects and designers‘, and we are honored to have been selected as one of the highlighted firms. From the press release:

A total of 61 architects and industrial designers from architecture and industrial design and manufacturing firms across Europe were selected by a jury of architects that convened in Chicago June 2009.

An exhibition of work by the 2009 Laureates opens at Contemporary Space Athens (46-48 Megalou Vassiliou, Rouf-Athens, Greece) on Wednesday, September 16 and continues through November 1. A more formal exhibition and presentation takes place at the symposium, “The City and the World,” in Florence, Italy the second week of November 2009.

The “Europe 40 Under 40” program was initiated by The European Centre and The Chicago Athenaeum to spotlight and identify the next generation of European architects and design professionals who will impact future living and working environments, cities, and rural areas in Europe and around the world.

In 2008, hundreds of architecture and design submissions for 2009 were received by The European Centre from across Europe (both Members States of the European Community and Accession States). “The jury selection and process was extremely difficult,” states Ioannis Karalias, Museum Vice President, The Chicago Athenaeum. “The jury was presented with hundreds of excellent projects and designs from skyscrapers and large-scale urban planning projects to the highest quality industrial design for commercial and consumer use. It was difficult to narrow the number down to simply 40 design firms (60 designers and partners of design firms in total).”