The shortlist of 40 projects considered for the 2017 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award (the Mies Award, in short), has just been made available, reports ArchDaily.

The projects represent 17 of the 28 EU member states and highlight the realities of today’s Europe: cities, housing heritage and memory.

According to the Mies Foundation the award creates awareness for the big contribution European architects make in the development of new ideas and technologies. It also acknowledges the cultural role architecture plays in city design. It further promotes cooperation across country borders and supports young architects who are at the start of their careers with the Emerging Architect award. The winner of this prize will be announced in May. The main prize will only be awarded later – after the judges have visited the five buildings chosen from the shortlist of 40.

Two previous winners have made it onto the shortlist again – Álvaro Siza was the recipient of the first Mies Award in 1988 for the Banco Borges e Irmão in Vila do Conde, Portugal.

The Building on the Water / Álvaro Siza + Carlos Castanheira. Image © Fernando Guerra | FG + SG

Banco Borges Architecture

This time he is nominated for the Nadir Afonso Museum for Contemporary Art in Chaves, Portugal. The Spanish firm Mansilla + Tuñón Arquitectos won in 2007 with another contemporary art museum, the Castilla en León. They are on the 2017 shortlist for the Museum of Royal Collections in Madrid.