David Chipperfield designed the new Nobel Prize home

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - The Nobel Foundation unveiled yesterday the winning design for a building that will host the world's most prestigious prize.

The Foundation hopes to inaugurate the 25,000-square-metre building in 2018, when nearly all its activites will be expected to be held into. Also the Nobel Prize ceremony and the Nobel museum will take place in this new building.

Nobel Foundation executive director Lars Heikensten said at a press conference: "The winner of the architecture competition of the Nobel Centre is David Chipperfield Architects in Berlin".

The Nobel Centre has a 133 million euros, $184 million budget and it will be built in a historic district, surrounded by water and near some of the city's main museums and landmarks.

This new building will gather all the foundation's activities. The Nobel banquet will remain in the city hall, for the time being. The Nobel Prize ceremony, traditionally held on December 10th at the Stockholm Concert Hall, will move to the new venue, as well as the Nobel museum and the Nobel Foundation offices.

The Nobel Centre will also house a library, several conference rooms and educational space for school visits. The building will attempt to reflect some of the Nobel aspirations, according to the winning architecture studio.

"It has a certain classical simplicity and solidity", British architect David Chipperfield said. "It tries to find a balance between being solid on the one hand and transparent on the other".

Private donations already cover two-thirds of the project's budget. The creation of a home for the Nobel Prize has been discussed ever since the awards were first handed out in Stockholm in 1901.