David Chipperfield Architects win design award for Nobel Centre

The Nobel Foundation has unveiled the winning design for a building that will give the world's most famous prize a home for the first time in its century-long history.

The foundation hopes to open the 269,000-square-feet building in Stockholm in 2018, when it is expected to house nearly all its activities, including the Nobel Prize ceremony and the Nobel museum.

Nobel Foundation executive director Lars Heikensten announced David Chipperfield Architects of Berlin as the winner of the centre design competition. The Nobel Centre, with a 1.2 billion kronor (HK$1.4 billion) budget, will be built in a historic district of Stockholm, surrounded by water and near the city's main museums and landmarks.

The new building will gather all of the foundation's many activities, which are scattered around the city, except the Nobel banquet, which will remain in the city hall.

The Nobel Centre also will house a library, several conference rooms and educational space for school visits.

The building, with a bronze, stone and glass facade, will attempt to reflect some of the Nobel aspirations, according to the winning architecture studio.