The International Committee of Architectural Critics is a non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 of international architecture critics

Architecture criticism

Architecture criticism is the act of writing or speaking about a building, usually of historical importance or novel design or built in a notable public space....

, and was founded in Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

 on October 26, 1978, during the 13th World Kongress of the Union internationale des architectes (UIA). The CICA is headquartered nearby the UIA in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. Paris was also the residence of Pierre Vago

Pierre Vago

Pierre Vago was a notable French architect who worked on the Hansaviertel in Berlin. Known Internationally as the publisher of L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui and General Secretary of the UIA...

, who was head of the organization for years. The seat of the secretary was originally located in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

, residence of Jorge Glusberg

Jorge Glusberg

Jorge Glusberg is an author, publisher and curator as well as professor.Glusberg is longtime director of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes MNBA in Buenos Aires and co-director of Comité Internacional de Críticos de Arquitectura CICA. In 2002 he was leader of the Buenos Aires Biennale...

, but can be transferred per decret to any other place worldwide according to the residence of the chairmen.

Founding members of the CICA were Pierre Vago, Bruno Zevi

Bruno Zevi

Bruno Zevi was an Italian architect, historian, professor, curator, author and editor. Zevi was a vocal critic of 'classicising' modern architecture and postmodernism.-University years:...

, Max Blumenthal, Mildred Schmertz, Blake Huges, Jorge Glusberg, Louise Noëlle Gras de Mereles, Julius Posener

Julius Posener

Julius Posener was a German architectural historian, author and higher education teacher....

 and others.

CICA awards

All awards of the association were originally called CICA Award. Since 2003 they have been named after the foundation members. The CICA Book Award was the first award of the CICA and was awarded at the 14th UIA World Congress in 1981.

CICA special awards were awarded to the China Architecture & Building Press (CABP) and to Springer-Verlag

Springer Science+Business Media

- Selected publications :* Encyclopaedia of Mathematics* Ergebnisse der Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete * Graduate Texts in Mathematics * Grothendieck's Séminaire de géométrie algébrique...

 for the "World Architecture: A Critical Mosaic 1900-2000" series.

Selected prize winners:

• Manfredi Nicoletti
  Manfredi Nicoletti
  Manfredi Nicoletti is an Italian architect.- Biography :Born in Rieti, Nicoletti began his artistic and intellectual career very young in the studio of Giacomo Balla. In Rome he studied under Pier Luigi Nervi and graduated in architecture in 1954...
  
  ; first winner of the CICA Book Award
• James Marsden Fitch and Kenneth Frampton
  Kenneth Frampton
  Kenneth Frampton , is a British architect, critic, historian and the Ware Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, New York....
  
  ; first winners of the CICA Prize for Journalism
• Arthur Drexler; first winner of the CICA Award for a Preface or Introduction to an Exhibition Catalogue
• Alan Colquhon
• Geoffrey Jellicoe
  Geoffrey Jellicoe
  Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe was an English landscape architect, garden designer, Architect and author.Jellicoe was born in Chelsea. He studied at the Architectural Association in London in 1919 and won a Rome Scholarship in 1923 which enabled him to research his first book Italian Gardens of the...
  
  
• Roger Connah
  Roger Connah
  Roger Connah is a writer, independent scholar and researcher based in Ruthin, North Wales, and has taught for over three decades in Finland, India, Pakistan, Sweden, Canada and the USA. Connah studied architecture at Bristol University and Jesus College, Cambridge...
  
  
• William Curtis
• Heinrich Klotz
• David Leatherbarrow
  David Leatherbarrow
  David Leatherbarrow is Professor of Architecture and Chair of the Graduate Group in Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, Philadelphia, where he has taught since 1984. He received his B.Arch. from the University of Kentucky and holds a Ph.D. in Art from the University of...
  
  ; CICA Bruno Zevi Book Award
• Mohsen Mostafavi
  Mohsen Mostafavi
  Mohsen Mostafavi is an Iranian-American architect and educator. He currently the Dean and Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He was formerly the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University...
  
  ; CICA Bruno Zevi Book Award
• ARK, The Finnish Architectural Review (Finland); CICA Pierre Vago Award for Architectural Journalism 2003
• Terence Riley/Barry Bergdoll
  Barry Bergdoll
  Barry Bergdoll is a Professor of architectural history in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University and the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.-Education:...
  
  ; CICA Julius Posener Award 2003 for an architectural exhibition catalogue text