The projects awarded the arquia/próxima ex aequo prize are:
• “48 houses in Magaluf” by the Lloc Arquitectes studio, in Mallorca, Spain.
• “Eix Verd de Consell de Cent” by Cierto Estudio and BP67 Palomeras Arquitectes, in Barcelona, Spain.
Both projects will receive a prize of €15,000, divided between the two winning projects.
The jury also awarded the arquia/innova prize ex aequo to:
• “Blasón Elements for Industrial Recovery” by Burr studio, in Madrid, Spain.
• “Casa 0006” by Taller 11, in Vilafranca del Penedès, Barcelona, Spain.
• “ELEMENTA” by Parabase, in Basel, Switzerland.
• “Everywhere & nowhere” by Pareid Architecture in Madrid, Spain.
• “Deep Spa” by La Cuarta Piel, in Alicante, Spain.
The projects will receive a prize of €3,000, divided between all the winning projects.
The two projects with the highest award, arquia/próxima ex aequo, were selected by the jury for their undeniable architectural quality and for demonstrating how collaboration between public administrations and young architects can lead to interventions with great social impact. In two different areas, such as collective housing and public space, the author teams skilfully manage to make the solutions proposed to current challenges attractive, focusing on people and their well-being through conscious design and careful materiality.
The response of emerging talent to this approach revolved around five main themes: new housing paradigms, materialities, the enjoyment of public space and the communication of architecture. The arquia/próxima Festival was structured around these same five themes, in the format of discussion panels entitled: “Economies of Desire,” “Material Intelligences,” “Affective Dimensions,” “Public Enjoyment” and “Domestic Aspirations,” in which the authors of the selected projects and the jury exchanged ideas and perspectives.
The edition was organised under the curatorship of Marina Otero Verzier, who defined the central theme, “DESIRE”, as a proposal to mobilise desire as a driving force for change towards eco-social, economic and political transformations.
"The selection shows that it is possible to channel desire beyond the outdated dreams of progress, but it also shows that architecture professionals still have work to do. How could we channel the force of desire towards more sustainable models?"
Marina Otero Verzier.
The jury was composed of curator Marina Otero, together with Daniel Rincón de la Vega, Uriel Fogué (Elii Arquitectura), Manuel Clavel, Clara Olóriz, Jaume Mayol (TED'A Arquitectes), Ricardo Carvalho and Ignacio de Teresa.
The arquia/próxima program, launched in 2006, has established itself as one of the key programs of the Arquia Foundation to support emerging talent in the field of architecture. Since its creation in 1990 by the Caja de Arquitectos (now Arquia Banca), the Foundation, currently directed by Sol Candela, continues to support the dissemination of innovative projects in architecture, construction, design and urban planning.
The festival has been held in different cities throughout Spain, with slogans that have a lot to do with the situation of the new generations at that time: 'Origins and disagreements' in 2008 in Valencia, 'In Change' 2010 Madrid, 'New Formats' 2012 A Coruña, 'Out' 2014 Granada, 'Imperfect Future' 2016 Malaga, 'Relevant practices' 2018 Madrid, 'Inflection point' 2020 virtual (Barcelona) and in 2022 it returned to Valencia with 'Resilience. A dynamic balance'.
