An international jury comprising of representatives from INTBAU, the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, the Ministry of Culture, the Consejo Superior de Colegios de Arquitectos de España, the city councils of the four towns and the Rafael Manzano Prize, met via teleconference on 17-18 June to assess the quality and feasibility of the projects proposed.
100 national and international architecture studios submitted their design proposals for the sites of Santa Cruz de La Palma, Santiago de Compostela, Alzira and Guadix.
A total of €58,000 has been awarded in prizes this year, with each winning project receiving €12,000. Due to the high quality of the rest of the proposals, the Jury has granted several honorary mentions, each of them awarded with €2,000, to eleven projects that contributed substantially towards revitalising and enhancing the beauty of these four locations.
Santiago de Compostela
The winning initiative for Santiago de Compostela was ‘Hydrangea’, by the team of architects of Eva Niño, Elia San Román and Carmen Carral. The project seeks to recover several buildings, currently in ruins, to build housing for artists. Additionally, it establishes a discreet connection between this area and the park of Santo Domingo de Bonaval and also rehabilitates a municipal warehouse into a space for workshops or exhibitions.
The jury also decided to award honourable mentions to three other proposals which they considered best responded to solving some of the design issues identified in the Competition brief.
First Honourable Mention to Aurora Armental Ruiz and Stefano Ciurlo Walker, with their collaborators María Esther Bergua Orduna, Alejandro Morales Martín, Johanna Hemberger and Ana María Vidal Ruiz de Velasco.
Second Honourable Mention to Víctor Manuel Guimerá Millán and María del Pilar Rama Lara.
Third Honourable Mention to Ignacio Enrique Galán Fernández and Marina Carlota Álvarez García.
Alzira
In the case of Alzira, the winning proposal was ‘Ad Fontes’, by the Seville firm Jiménez & Linares. The project proposed the recovery of the urban fabric of the western part of “la Vila” and the rehabilitation of the Almohade wall and the remains of the temple of Santa María. The new streets in this proposal converge on a plaza connected to the banks of the Júcar river. Additionally, it recovers the footprint of the old church and rebuilds its bell tower, which is proposed as a viewpoint.
In addition to this, the jury decided to award two honourable mentions to the proposals which were considered especially successful in solving some of the issues identified in the brief for Alzira.
First Honourable Mention to Alejandro Martínez del Río and Francisco Javier Gómez Patrocinio.
Second Honourable Mention to Víctor Manuel Guimerá Millán and María del Pilar Rama Lara.
Guadix
The Guadix proposal seeks to revitalize the area around the old citadel, the Alcazaba, currently derelict. The project selected, “Pisando la Tierra”, by architects Alfonso Zavala and Ramón Andrada, stood out for its plan to rearrange the Plaza Pedro de Mendoza and to focus the intervention on the access to the Alcazaba. The project is characterised by its attempt to reconstruct the housing on the site in line with local traditions, and its plan to rehabilitate the Palacio de los Saavedra as a hotel.
The jury also awarded honourable mentions to two other proposals which they considered to respond well to the brief for Guadix.
First Honourable Mention to Elena Jiménez Sánchez and Abelardo Linares del Castillo-Valero, with their collaborators Paloma Márquez Aguilar and David Vera García.
Second Honourable Mention to Laura Elvira Tejedor, Aitor Ramírez Rico and Amaia Prat Aizpuru.
Santa Cruz de La Palma
After a thorough discussion, it was decided that the main prize for Santa Cruz de La Palma would not be awarded. The jury’s decision was based on the fact that no proposal was able to fully respond successfully to the challenges described by the City.
However, since the jury found notable qualities in several of the projects which were put forward, they opted to award an honourable mention ex aequo to two of them.
First Honourable Mention EX AEQUO (I) was to the project named “Artillero”, by Javier de Mingo García and Carmen Bueno García, with the collaborator Nuria González Roche, highlighting its excellent proposal for the building which would hold the museum, based on the architectural traditions of the island.
First Honourable Mention EX AEQUO (II), was to the proposal named “Nuevo Bulevar y Museo”, by Richard Sammons, with the collaborators Anne Fairfax, Phaedra Philippoussis and Cecilia Debary McCammon, for solving with special acuity the new urban plan for the area, articulated by an attractive boulevard which descends towards the sea.
The jury also chose to award honourable mentions to two other proposals:
Second Honourable Mention to Sergio Hernández Betancor, Carlos Hernández Allende, Marina Valero Martínez and Pedro Guillermo González Gutiérrez.
Second Honourable Mention to Jordi Morros Cardona and Jordi Giral García, with their collaborators Javier Monte Collado, Antonio Fumadó Abad, Eduardo Pérez Ramírez and Mireia Fargas Carbonés.
The winning designs will be part of an exhibition to be opened after the awards ceremony to be held in Madrid in October.
The first phase for the 2021 Competition has also just been launched, so that all interested Spanish municipalities may submit their candidacy.
For additional information and rules of the competition: www.driehauscompetition.com