The purpose of this award is to recognise architectural projects (including interiors, public spaces and landscaping) whose excellence enhances the ability of spaces to provide comfort to those who dwell within them. These designs improve people’s quality of life on a daily basis: while working, learning, sharing, enjoying… It’s architecture to be lived!
This year’s jury features: PhD Architect, writer and curator Andrés Jaque, chairman; filmmaker and screenwriter Amanda Sans; Berlin-based architect and professor Verena Von Beckerath; Afro-Brazilian architect and urban planner Gabriela de Matos; and industrial designer Salvi Plaja, Global Chief Design Officer at Simon and president of FAD (Fostering Arts and Design).
This jury will choose from amongst all audiovisual pieces submitted those that have best captured the Prize values in two categories: Personal Places and Collective Places. It will first determine 5 finalist works for each category, from which the two winning projects will be chosen, whose authors will be awarded a cash prize of €10,000 each and a trophy designed by Andreu Carulla.
In the last edition, in the Personal Places category, the prize went to Rambla Climate House in Murcia (Spain), by the Andrés Jaque / Office For Political Innovation + Miguel Mesa Del Castillo studio (Madrid, Spain); while the winning project in the Collective Places category was Kithara Music Public Kiosk (Mexico City, Mexico) by TO.
RA! Arquitectos received a special mention in the last edition for their video of the project “Taqueria Los Alexis” in Mexico City, being recognised as “Best Audiovisual Narrative”. Thanks to this achievement, the studio has been selected to create the launch video for the new call for entries, entitled “El Luchador” (The Fighter).
The story takes place in a historic building, the Taller de Arquitectura of Agustín Hernández in Mexico City, where a young dreamer enters to live out his greatest fantasy: to become a wrestler, while facing unexpected events.
Featuring professional wrestler Guerrero Aguila Tule, directed and written by filmmakers René Batista and Tito Sánchez, the short film highlights the power of dream spaces to make the wishes of their inhabitants come true, through an exceptional narrative.
The inaugural event “Space Narratives”, at which the video was presented, took place within the framework of Barcelona Architecture Weeks, and offered attendees the chance to discover La Casa de la Llum, the showroom designed by Antoni Arola.
This is the outcome of renovations of the company’s former factory, originally designed by the architect Agustí Borrell Sensat and completely renovated in 2023 by b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos, with the collaboration of the Katty Schiebeck interior design studio and Michela Mezzavilla for the lighting.
The result of this renovation configures large contemporary spaces that maintain, at the same time, a homey, warm and luminous feeling. Spaces designed as “living places” that promote comfort at work and the well-being of the over 350 people who work in the building. Source by SIMON.
