12 June 2015
- A library, a house and a monastery, among the 2nd annual AADIPA European Award for Architectural Heritage Intervention prize-winners. The 5 winning projects and the 14 finalists were selected from a total of almost 200 entrants from 25 different countries.
- The European Award for Architectural Heritage Intervention AADIPA is an award offered by COAC (the Association of Architects of Catalonia) and AADIPA (the Association of Architects for the Defence and Intervention in Architectural Heritage) in association with the Generalitat de Catalunya Government Department of Culture, the aim of which is to distinguish good heritage practices and contribute to their disclosure.
Today, at the COAC Centre in Barcelona, the jury announced the prize-winners of the 2nd AADIPA European Award for Architectural Heritage Intervention. The award ceremony will form part of the 2nd AADIPA Intervention in Architectural Heritage International Biennial, at which the names of the 14 finalist projects and the 5 award winners were announced. The Generalitat de Catalunya Government Minister of Culture, Ferran Mascarell, the president of the Catalonia Association of Architects, Lluís Comerón and the president of the Association of Architects for the Defence and Intervention in Architectural Heritage, Antoni Vilanova presented the awards.
The international jury panel, whose members highlighted the quality of the submitted projects, as well as the great diversity, character and scale of the work in terms of maintaining, rehabilitating and highlighting European architecture, announced the winners of the four categories, which were:
A) In the Intervention in Existing Architectural Heritage category, the jury announced two ex aequo prize winners: Paredes Pedrosa Arquitectos (Spain), for their Ceuta Public Library project, an intervention which evidently highlights architectural heritage, establishing a perfect co-existence with a contemporary public programme, building a new location where the interior-exterior duality are upheld through time. And the SAMI-Arquitectos studio. Inês Vieira da Silva. Miguel Vieira (Portugal), for their E/C house project, which establishes an intense dialogue between differing moments, rehabilitating a ruined building with materials that synchronously evolve through time, reactivating the sense of place in relation to the landscape.
B) In the Exterior Spaces category, Isabel Aguirre Urcola and Celestino García Braña (Spain), for their project Intervention in the environs of Caaveiro Monastery. With an economic use of resources, this intervention achieved maximum integration within its surroundings. This is a real statement in favour of a location's expressiveness. In a global world, this work represents a manifesto in defence of a recovery of identity, memory and nature.
*Nevertheless, in this category the jury wished to make special mention of the Bastión de Labrit Bridge project in Pamplona by Pereda Pérez Arquitectos and Ignacio Olite who, with a similar attitude, cover the space around the city walls with great elegance and respect.
C) In the Urban Planning category, Ubistudio (Italy) for their Masterplan for the city of Monza. This is a project in which the jury were impressed by their ease of understanding, both in terms of analysis and in the proposals they made to promote new uses and activities through a recognition of their own landscape, as well as their capacity for synthesis, using accurate, clear graphic representation.
D) In the category of Disclosure, Fernando Cobos (Spain) and Joâo Campos (Portugal), for their project Almeida/Ciudad Rodrigo – A fortificaçao da Raia Central, deserving of the award for its innovative way of focusing on a knowledge of territorial and heritage-based systems with reference to the fortifications of the central Spanish-Portuguese 'band' and the rich historical and cartographic documentation of the comparative analysis of the cities of Almeida (Portugal) and Ciudad Rodrigo (Spain).
Since 24 April, the closing date for this year's Awards, the international jury comprising renowned experts in the field of Intervention in Architectural Heritage have assessed entrants in each of the four prize categories. In Category A – Intervention in Existing Architectural Heritage –, the architects Antón Capitel, Toni Gironés and Malgorzata Rozbicka evaluated 117 projects. In Category B – Exterior Spaces– the experts Joaquín Pérez, Jose Luís Infanzón and Giuseppe Lonetti looked at 32 entries. In Category C – Urban Planning – Antoni Vilanova, Sonia Puente Landázuri and Cristopher Graz studied 8 projects while in Category D – Disclosure – Raquel Lacuesta and Miguel Ángel Troitiño looked at 27 projects.
The 2nd European Award for Architectural Heritage Intervention AADIPA, led by Ramon Calonge, Oriol Cusidó, Marc Manzano, and Jordi Portal; member architects of AADIPA, the Association of Architects for the Defence and Intervention in Architectural Heritage, has seen an international entry level which is four times higher than the first year. With a total of almost 200 projects entered from 25 countries, the event has consolidated its position and permanence, confirming its international appeal.