Architecture Award further recognition of Frankfurt Book Fair success

A top architecture award for New Zealand’s Guest of Honour Pavilion at the Frankfurt Book Fair is further recognition of New Zealand’s excellent programme as Guest of Honour at the world’s largest content and media fair, Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Christopher Finlayson said today.

The New Zealand Guest of Honour Pavilion at the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair, designed by Patterson Associates and Inside Out Productions, received the International Architecture Award at the 2014 New Zealand Architecture Awards last night.

“This award further demonstrates the high quality of New Zealand’s presence at the Frankfurt Book Fair as Guest of Honour,” Mr Finlayson said. “The pavilion was the centrepiece for exhibits of our premier arts, creative industries and stories to new audiences and business partners.”

“The programme created huge interest, attracting over 90,000 people in five days. Organisers attributed significant increases in ticket sales to the Book Fair itself to interest in the New Zealand exhibit, drawing not only huge attention to publishers and content creators, but also to New Zealand culture, tourism, food and wine products.”

The Frankfurt Book Fair is the world’s most prestigious and well attended international publishing event and media trade fair, encompassing books, gaming and films, with around 7500 exhibitors from 110 countries and hundreds of thousands of visitors each year over its five days.

The New Zealand publishing and creative sectors continue to benefit from the Book Fair, with a significant increase in the number of titles translated for European markets since 2012,” he said.

The pavilion, designed for New Zealand’s theme at the book fair of “While You Were Sleeping”, was described by the jury as "a refreshing take on exposition architecture" and a "technically sophisticated and culturally powerful response to the challenge of representing New Zealand's literary identity at the international publishing industry's premier event."

New Zealand’s Guest of Honour programme was led by the ministry for Culture and Heritage in partnership with NZ Film Commission, NZ Film Archive, the Publishers Association of NZ (PANZ), Victoria University of Wellington, Massey University, the NZ-German Business Association, and other sponsors.

More details about the Guest of Honour Programme can be found on the Ministry’s website: http://www.mch.govt.nz/what-we-do/our-projects/completed/frankfurt-book-fair/

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