AHI Architectural Heritage Intervention

“Contributing to enhancing our heritage, as the way forward for 21 st Century architecture is our raison d’être; to emphasize a diverse, rich vision that necessarily complements the intervention is our mission, and achieving it with reflexive and purposeful efforts is the challenge”.

This project, founded in, and directed since, 2011 by Ramon Calonge, Oriol Cusidó, Marc Manzano and Jordi Portal, architects and members of the Group of Architects for the Defence and Intervention in Architectural Heritage (AADIPA), has, through the years become a platform that includes four actions that are both independent and transversal.
 
The European Award, a biennial event that brings together and showcases the multiple approaches of intervention in Europe.

The International Biennial, a framework that serves to compare and gain closer insight of quality interventions in architectural heritage in non-European countries.

The digital Archive, a live and open window that provides a panoramic view of interventions in the history of our surroundings.

The Forum, a meeting place where you can participate in on-going debates about the main preoccupations and lines of thought about interventions in architectural heritage in Europe.

Other Editions

2025

The seventh edition of the European AHI Award saw the participation of 238 projects, submitted by architecture studios and public and private entities from 24 European countries.

All the winning and finalist projects have been promoted by the public administration, demonstrating the importance of heritage intervention and conservation in the European public sphere.

Set up 14 years ago, the AHI Award has firmly established itself on the European stage thanks both to its unique characteristics and the importance of the projects submitted in every edition to date.

The international jury, responsible for selecting the shortlisted, finalist and winning projects, was made up of the following architects:
Built Heritage category: Meritxell Inaraja, Stefano Francesco Musso and Stijn Cools.
Exterior Spaces category: Michaela De Poli, Gentzane Goikuria and Fernando Menis.
Urban Planning category: Ioanna Spanou, Batu Kepekcioğlu and Bart Akkerhuis.
Disclosure category: Elodie Degavre, Stephen Bates and Mariona Benedito.
Special New European Bauhaus: Ramon Calonge, Oriol Cusidó, Marc Manzano, Jordi Portal and Marcos Ros, representative of the European Parliament.
Special Restoration Mention: Ramon Calonge, Oriol Cusidó, Marc Manzano, Jordi Portal and Anneleen Stevens.

Jury Proceeding

2023

The 6th edition of the Award concluded with the participation of 241 projects overall, 55% of which were submitted by first-time entrants. Thanks to the addition of Liechtenstein, a record 28 countries participated in this edition. Although Spain was once again the country with the largest number of entries, the European growth trend was maintained, with the number of projects from the rest of the continent almost matching that of Spain.

Intervention in Built Heritage was once again the category with the largest number of entries, representing 72% of the total. As regards client type, almost 65% of the projects were promoted by clients belonging to the public sector.

The main novelty of this edition was the incorporation of the New European Bauhaus (NEB) Special Mention, aimed at recognising projects that have excelled in the areas of sustainability, aesthetics and inclusivity[T_1] . This new special mention is the result of the synergies between the Award organisers and the representatives of the Parliament of the European Union.

In this edition, the international jury highlighted the entrants’ wide variety of approaches, implementation of materials and scales of intervention, challenging the definition of concepts such as heritage or even exterior spaces. All of these approaches produce possible and valid actions in the sphere of Intervention in Architectural Heritage. Furthermore, the Award recognised interventions carried out using sustainability and inclusivity criteria in social housing and cultural urban facilities.

The jury of the 6th edition was made up of:
Built Heritage: Dikkie Scipio, Susana Valbuena and Kimmo Lintula 
Exterior Spaces: Chris Rankin, Pasqual Herrero and Maria Viñé
Urban Planning: Sara Bartomeus, Maria Chiara Tosi and Carlo Atzeni
Disclosure: Devi Kituashvili, Nicola Regusci and Verena von Beckerath
New European Bauhaus (NEB) Special Mention: Ramon Calonge, Oriol Cusidó, Marc Manzano, Jordi Portal and the MEP Marcos Ros 
Restoration Special Mention: Ramon Calonge, Oriol Cusidó, Marc Manzano. Jordi Portal and Pedro Rodríguez Cantalapiedra

Jury Proceeding

5th Edition

The 5th Edition of the European AHI award, in 2021, is a benchmark in the history of the event. With nearly 300 projects being presented, it meant a 25% increase; a tremendous success which coincided with the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the project.

The event welcomed 177 national entries, 51 more than the 2019 Edition, while international participation rose significantly, with projects from countries such as France. Participants from countries such as Germany and the UK doubled. Also, for the first time, participants from countries such as Andorra, Finland, Norway, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine were present at the event.

When selecting the projects, the international jury highlighted the diversity, sensitivity, preciseness, and regard of each project. 

The members of the international jury for this fifth edition were:
Built Heritage category: António Jorge Fontes, David Lorente and Marco Antonio Garcés
Exterior Spaces category: Delphine Péters, Isabel Aguirre and Olga Felip
Urban Planning category: Sascha Wienecke, Sebastià Jornet and Joaquín Pérez-Goicoechea
Disclosure category: Peter Cachola, Joan Olona and Laida Memba
Special Restoration Mention: Francis Metzger, Ramon Calonge, Oriol Cusidó, Marc Manzano and Jordi Portal

Jury Proceeding

2019

The 4th Edition, held in 2019, welcomed a record high of 239 candidates from 23 countries, thus showing the success of the contest, its increasingly solid reputation, and the consolidation of its international fame. For the first time, 50% of the participating projects were European, while the other 50% were national.

As a novelty, a Special Mention for Restoration award was given for the first time to an intervention for its quality, precision, and intense respect, from a technical and methodological approach in this specific field. Also, 15 projects in Category A, Intervention in Built Heritage, and 10 projects in Category B, Exterior spaces, were chosen to give visibility to a greater number of projects and to acknowledge the extremely high level of good practices in heritage in Europe.

The international jury, in turn, highlighted not only the rigor and architectural quality of the participants, but also their ability to show that contemporary intervention is able to preserve the original spirit, as well as the ambition of the authors to disseminate and enhance architectural heritage.

The members of the international jury for this 4 th Edition were:
Built Heritage category: Louis Leger, Marià Castelló, Leticia Soriano.
Exterior Spaces category: Benoit Moritz, Elisabeth Abalo, Elena Albareda.
Urban Planning category: Chiara Nifosi, Javier Gallego, Joan Casadevall.
Disclosure category: Mariana Correia, José Manuel Chacón, Anna Ramos.
Special Restoration Mention: Ramon Calonge, Oriol Cusidó, Marc Manzano and Jordi Portal.

Jury Proceeding

2017

In 2017, the year of the 3 rd edition, the European Award AHI secured its continuity by consolidating the volume of participation and ratifying its intention to stand out as a European referral. The same as in the previous Edition, 60% of the participating projects were national, while the other 40% were of European origin, with a clear increase in participation from countries such as Portugal, France, Italy, and Belgium.

On the other hand, the international jury applauded the high quality of all the projects in the event, emphasizing the precision and fidelity with which the interventions approached the recuperation of the heritage. There were four winners, two Special Mentions, and eighteen finalists. Considering the quality, the levels, the difficulty, ambition and sensitivity of the proposals, the jury decided to increase the number of finalists for this edition.

The members of the international jury for this 3 rd Edition were:
Built Heritage category: Inês Vieira da Silva, Ignacio Pedrosa, Marc Aureli Santos
Exterior Spaces category: Ian Mcknight, Celestino García Braña, Pere Buil
Urban Planning category: Alessandro Alì, Carles Enrich, Cristina Mata
Disclosure category: Carsten Hanssen, Fernando Cobos, Montserrat Villaverde

Jury Proceeding

2015

The 2nd edition, held in 2015, welcomed 171 projects. The number of countries participating in the event tripled, with architectural firms from twenty-five different European countries presenting their projects. This balanced the percentage of national participants versus European ones, with 60% as opposed to 40% in the first edition.

The international jury also highlighted the large diversity, character, and work related to preserving, restoring, and enhancing European architectural heritage, so much so that in Category A – Intervention in Built Heritage, the award was granted ex-aequo to two projects. Besides the five winners, there were also fourteen finalists.

The award ceremony was held on 12 June 2015, at the head office of the Architects’ Association of Catalonia, and was attended by the winners, finalists, and the international jury, besides various celebrities and representatives from the worlds of architecture and heritage.

The members of the international jury for this 2 nd Edition were:
Built Heritage category: Antón Capitel, Toni Gironés, Malgorzata Rozbicka
Exterior Spaces category: Joaquín Pérez, Jose Luís Infanzón, Giuseppe Lonetti
Urban Planning category: Antoni Vilanova, Sonia Puente Landázuri, Cristophe Graz
Disclosure category: Raquel Lacuesta, Miguel Angel Troitiño

Jury Proceeding

2013

The first edition of the European Award AHI was held in 2013; its main goal was to distinguish and disseminate good heritage architectural practices. One hundred and ninety-four projects by teams from eight different countries (Portugal, Malta, Greece, Italy, France, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Spain) took part. In this first edition, and due to the place where it was organised, the majority (90%) of the candidates were from Spain.

The award, however, clearly seeks internationalisation with the aim of becoming a referral on a European scale. The goal is to achieve generous intervention in heritage buildings, a concept that does not ignore more modest architectures, more popular landscapes, more recent sceneries, or even smaller initiatives.

The members of the international jury for the first edition were:
Built Heritage Category: Antoni Navarro, Francisco Jurado, Dario Dattilo
Exterior Spaces Category: Josep Miàs, Francisco Pol, Marcos Cruz
Urban Planning Category: Jordi Rogent, Javier Fernández, Jean-Yves Quai
Disclosure Category: Ascensión Hernández, M. Pierre-Marie Tricaud, Josep Maria Montaner

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