The CSCAE ARCHITECTURE Awards announce the winners of its first edition, in a great night of celebration in which the most social, cultural and sustainable values of architecture and urban planning have been awarded, focusing on their effects on health, well-being and safety of people, as well as the sustainability of the planet.
In order to value what is known as the Landscape of Light, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the ARCHITECTURE Awards ceremony was held at CaixaForum Madrid. The company of Verónica Garzón and Begoña Quiñones performed in it, wearing suits from the “Lunatic” collection, by the Murcian designer Constanza Mas, performing “Shaping”, a three-step that winks at the Bauhaus at one point in which the citizen pact is essential to meet challenges, such as the transition to a decarbonized economy and the defence of the quality of the built environment, as prescribed by the Davos Declaration and the New European Bauhaus. At the end of the gala, the attendees enjoyed a cocktail in the Royal Botanical Garden.
Six works were awarded for their values
SUSTAINABILITY AND HEALTH AWARD: Universal values
Conditioning of the public spaces of the Explanada del Horizonte, Porticelo, Pontevedra | Maria Fandino Iglesias
The jury has valued that the action of the Esplanade of the Horizon illustrates a new way of working with the territory and the landscape in line with mitigation strategies and adaptation to climate change; a way of intervening in the natural and cultural landscape that is capable of identifying the ecological and heritage qualities erased by insensitive action in the 1970s, while resolving current needs.
In order to value what is known as the Landscape of Light, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the ARCHITECTURE Awards ceremony was held at CaixaForum Madrid. The company of Verónica Garzón and Begoña Quiñones performed in it, wearing suits from the “Lunatic” collection, by the Murcian designer Constanza Mas, performing “Shaping”, a three-step that winks at the Bauhaus at one point in which the citizen pact is essential to meet challenges, such as the transition to a decarbonized economy and the defence of the quality of the built environment, as prescribed by the Davos Declaration and the New European Bauhaus. At the end of the gala, the attendees enjoyed a cocktail in the Royal Botanical Garden.
Six works were awarded for their values
SUSTAINABILITY AND HEALTH AWARD: Universal values
Conditioning of the public spaces of the Explanada del Horizonte, Porticelo, Pontevedra | Maria Fandino Iglesias
The jury has valued that the action of the Esplanade of the Horizon illustrates a new way of working with the territory and the landscape in line with mitigation strategies and adaptation to climate change; a way of intervening in the natural and cultural landscape that is capable of identifying the ecological and heritage qualities erased by insensitive action in the 1970s, while resolving current needs.
«Explanada do Horizonte» by María Fandiño. Photography by Héctor Fernández Santos-Díez.
NEW BAUHAUS AWARD: Cultural and artistic values
Helga de Alvear Museum of Contemporary Art, Cáceres | Emilio Manuel Tunon Alvarez
The jury has valued that the Helga de Alvear Museum responds in an exemplary way to the questions of the integration of the building in the place, to the articulation between the new and the existing, and to the clear expression of its use. The project tries to listen to the place and imagine a possible city that, without renouncing our time, is capable of preserving the way the city breathes. The museum displays a new place of high spatial quality, both from an architectural and urban point of view, which enables the collective encounter between citizens and the collection.
Museum of Contemporary Art Helga de Alvear by Emilio Tuñón Arquitectos. Photography by Alberto Amores & Pancho Matienzo.
COMMITMENT AWARD: Social and ethical values
6x6 block, Girona | Ramon Bosch i Pagès, Elisabet Capdeferro i Pla
The 6x6 Block building stands out for the precision and clarity of the construction system in cross-laminated wood, which adapts to the different facades. This proposal proposes the design of 35 dwellings based on criteria of program flexibility and reduction of the carbon footprint throughout the life cycle of the building. The project vindicates the discipline of architecture as a generator of domestic atmospheres, optimal microclimates for human life, configured from an efficient management of available material and natural resources.
6x6 block, Girona | Ramon Bosch i Pagès, Elisabet Capdeferro i Pla
The 6x6 Block building stands out for the precision and clarity of the construction system in cross-laminated wood, which adapts to the different facades. This proposal proposes the design of 35 dwellings based on criteria of program flexibility and reduction of the carbon footprint throughout the life cycle of the building. The project vindicates the discipline of architecture as a generator of domestic atmospheres, optimal microclimates for human life, configured from an efficient management of available material and natural resources.
6x6 block by Bosch.Capdeferro Arquitectura. Photograph by José Hevia
PROFESSION AWARD: Professional values
ICU-COVID building, in Parc Sanitari Pere Virgili, Barcelona | Patricio Martínez González, Maximià Torruella i Castel, Luis Miguel Gotor Navarra.
The jury has assessed that the project is a very good example of the suitability of architecture to provide an efficient response to exceptional social needs through good planning and technological innovation, and maintaining traditional values related to habitability. The building was born from a joint investigation with the Catalan Health System, to respond to the arrival of COVID-19. Designed to support the existing health network and can transform its use according to the needs of the health center to which it is linked.
Uci-Covid Building by PMMT Arquitectura. Photograph by Del Río Bani.
HABITAT AWARD: Basic values of Architecture and Urbanism
Son Caulelles nursing home, Portol (Majorca) | Santiago Vives i Sanfeliu, Tomás Montis Sastre, Adrià Clapés Nicolau.
The geriatric residence shows the aptitude of architecture for the creation of coexistence spaces with great attention to environmental quality: materials, natural elements, light. An architectural proposal that consists of the construction of a building around four interior courtyards. The project stands out for the optimization of its dimensions to adapt the building to the people who inhabit it, offering a social, sustainable and popular commitment.
Residential home for the Elderly by Santi Vives Sanfeliu, Tomás Montis Sastre, Adrià Clapés. Photograph by Alejandro Gómez Vives.
RE AWARD: Values associated with rehabilitation, renovation and regeneration
Espai Santa Eulalia, Gironella (Barcelona) | Carles Enrich i Giménez
The Espai Santa Eulàlia works very effectively on the recovery of an architectural heritage that has undergone numerous changes, through a very contained intervention equally oriented towards the qualities of the building and its relationship with the environment. The project consists of the adaptation of the old church of Gironella (Barcelona) into a cultural centre for the performing arts. Throughout history this church has undergone innumerable changes of use and, as a consequence, the project is based on the reading of all the layers and historical moments that it has gone through. Through the recovery of the central space, the insertion of services and the incorporation of the urban landscape, the space is reformulated and now dedicated to music, theatre and dance.
Espai Santa Eulália por Carles Enrich Studio. Fotografía por Adrià Goula
Three special distinctions
ARCHITECTURE AWARD 2021
Social housing, in Cornellà | Marta Peris Eugenio, José Manuel Toral Fernández (Peris+Toral Architects)
The social housing building works on the development of current construction solutions, with low impact, within a structure that aims to achieve rationality and flexibility. It also makes an effort to enable a sense of community for users. The project also stands out for its design of a matrix of communicating rooms, the use of wood, the improvement in the quality of construction, and the reduction of execution times and C02 emissions. The building manages to reduce its footprint by 55% less than a conventional equivalent building.
85 social housing units by Peris+Toral Arquitectes. Photograph by José Hevia
SPANISH URBAN PLANNING AWARD 2021
Agrocity Gagarine Truillot, Ivry-sur-Seine (France) | Miquel Àngel Lacasta i Codorniu, Carmen Santana Serra, Marc Chalamanch i Amat (Atelier Archikubik).
The Agrocity work is a paradigmatic example of comprehensive urban regeneration of a working-class housing neighbourhood near Paris in terms of building, due to the reallocation and mix of uses, in the commitment to adaptation and mitigation of climate change. In the field of planning, it develops methodologies for citizen participation to support the introduction of the circular economy in a neighbourhood with environmental problems, the introduction of authentic agricultural landscapes in the urban environment within a network that prioritizes pedestrian mobility and proposes actions that build a collective memory during the execution time of the plan.
Agrociudad Gagarine Truillot, Ivry-sur-Seine (France) | Miquel Àngel Lacasta i Codorniu, Carmen Santana Serra, Marc Chalamanch i Amat (Atelier Archikubik). Image by archikubik.
PERMANENCE AWARD 2021
Classroom 3 at the University of Alicante | Javier Garcia-Solera Vera
In the opinion of the jury, this work stands out, especially both for its correct ageing and for its relevance. Lecture Hall 3 of the University of Alicante stands out for the validity of some of the proposed solutions, such as the reuse of a previous foundation, the environmental conditioning through a system of patios, and the orderly and precise structural and construction system. The project is conceived as a large grove in which seven pavilions have interspersed that float on the ground, giving shape to an architecture that surrounds and accompanies without taking centre stage.
Classroom 3 at the University of Alicante | Javier García-Solera Vera. Photography by AAVV.
The Jury for the 6 awards based on values and the 3 special distinctions was made up of Carlos Miranda Barroso, architect, coordinator of the CSCAE Awards and Distinctions Working Group and president of the Jury; María Ángeles Fernández Hernando, Assistant Deputy Director of Architecture and Construction of the General Directorate of Urban Agenda and Architecture of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda; Paco Sanchis, CEO of COMPAC; Carmen Martínez Arraroyo, architect and representative of the Committee of Experts 1 “Building, Interior Design, Design and Minimal Architectures”; Javier Martínez Callejo, president of the Union of Groups of Urbanist Architects and representative of the Committee of Experts 2 “Urban Project, Landscape and Public Space”; Mar Santamaría, architect, member of the 300,000 kms studio, which in 2019 received the Spanish Urbanism Award from the CSCAE, and representative of the Committee of Experts 2 "Urban Project, Landscape and Public Space"; Pilar García Almirall, representative of the Committee of Experts 3 "Innovation, Dissemination and Professional Diversification" and director of the Department of Architecture Technology of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia; Fernando Márquez, architect, director and editor of the magazine El Croquis and representative of the Committee of Experts 3 “Innovation, Dissemination and Professional Diversification”; Moisés Castro, second vice president of the CSCAE, and Laureano Matas, general secretary of the CSCAE, as secretary of the Jury.
