The exhibition, curated by Pau de Solà-Morales Serra and Ignasi Bonet Peitx, also prompts reflection on the role that awards have played in shaping the criteria, memory, and narrative of Barcelona's architecture.
The curators present a dialogue between works, ideas, and generations that not only allows visitors to trace Barcelona's architectural evolution but also to imagine its future. The exhibition also offers a look at the mechanisms, criteria, and narratives that have contributed to defining architectural value in Barcelona. By relating the Annual Competition for Buildings and Urban Establishments, organized by the Barcelona City Council between 1899 and 1933, and the FAD Architecture and Interior Design Awards, created in 1958 and now the longest-running award of its kind in Europe, the exhibition offers a comprehensive perspective on how the city has recognized, explained, and shaped its architecture.
"Award-winning architecture. 125 years of awards" by Pau de Solà-Morales and Ignasi Bonet. Photograph courtesy of ARQUIN-FAD.
An exhibition built from historical archives to explore 125 years of architectural recognition in the city.
Barcelona maintains a long-standing relationship with its architecture and has recognized its architectural excellence as an essential part of its urban identity. For over a century, distinctions such as the current FAD Awards, the Mies van der Rohe Award, and the former Annual Competition for Urban Buildings and Establishments have contributed to making it a benchmark for architecture and design.
The FAD Architecture and Interior Design Awards, created in 1958, are the longest-running architecture awards in Europe and a benchmark for the country's architectural culture. For 67 consecutive editions, independent juries have recognized those works that have contributed to transforming the environment, the city, and the landscape. The awards initially recognized buildings constructed in the city of Barcelona, a scope that was later expanded to the metropolitan area (1978), the entire Catalan territory (1987), and finally, the Iberian Peninsula (since 1996). From this vast historical archive, which has recently begun to be cataloged and digitized, curators Pau de Solà-Morales and Ignasi Bonet have selected photographs of the award-winning works, as well as plans, drawings, portraits of their creators, and documentation on the administrative management of the awards themselves (jury minutes, lists, notes, evaluations, opinion polls, and press clippings).
"Award-winning architecture. 125 years of awards" by Pau de Solà-Morales and Ignasi Bonet. Photograph courtesy of ARQUIN-FAD.
Furthermore, "Award-Winning Architecture: 125 Years of Awards" takes its name as a tribute to a homonymous exhibition held in 1981 at the Saló del Tinell in Barcelona City Hall, which has also been a valuable source of information for Solà-Morales and Bonet. Organized by the FAD (Fostering Arts and Design) and curated by architect Jaume Freixa, that first exhibition focused on the Annual Competition for Urban Buildings and Establishments, held by the Barcelona City Council between 1899 and 1933, as well as the FAD Awards for Architecture, Interior Design, and Restoration, granted between 1958 and 1979. That exhibition, which was later expanded to travel to various Spanish cities, showcased the winning works from both competitions on more than one hundred panels. Some of these panels, measuring 110 × 70 cm, have been recovered for the new exhibition at the Oliva Artés Museum.
Finally, the exhibition and its accompanying catalog also complement or continue the work begun with the book FAD Awards 1958-2008. 50 Years of Architecture and Interior Design in the Iberian Peninsula, published by ARQUIN-FAD in 2010 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of these prestigious awards. A monumental work in its format and scope, it was directed by Solà-Morales himself and also includes information on the architectural, cultural, and sociopolitical context of the period. This book was, in turn, based on an earlier publication—FAD, More Than a Century of Architecture, Design, and Creativity: Improving Our Lives—published in 2005 to mark the FAD centenary and edited by Quim Larrea.
The exhibition "Award-Winning Architecture: 125 Years of Prizes" brings this collection of materials to life, allowing us to look back, understand the present, and envision possible futures for Barcelona's architecture. Drawing on data and documentation recovered from the FAD's historical archive, the pioneering exhibition at the Saló del Tinell, and commemorative publications produced by the organization itself, the exhibition offers an open interpretation of the role of awards as spaces for recognition, debate, and narrative construction. Beyond simply highlighting the distinguished works, it invites us to observe how the criteria for architectural excellence have been defined over time and how these awards have contributed to explaining, transforming, and reimagining the city.
