Winners 2016 COAM Awards

In 1992 Emilio Tuñón Álvarez (1958) and Luis M. Mansilla (1959) founded the firm MANSILLA + TUÑÓN ARQUITECTOS, awarded with the MIES VAN DER ROHE PRIZE 2007 (Prize for Contemporary Architecture of the European Union), National Prize for Spanish Architecture 2003, FAD Prize 2001.

Emilio Tuñón and Luis M. Mansilla are titular professors of the Department of Architectural Projects in Madrid. They have been professors in a number of universities, among which are the Graduate School of Design in Harvard, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, the New School of Architecture in Puerto Rico and the Städelschule in Frankfurt. They are currently giving clases in the School of Architecture of Princeton University.

In 1993 they founded the cooperative of thought CIRCO, coming out with a publication under the same title, and which has been awarded with the FAD Special Prize 2007, the prize for the III Iberoamerican Bienal for Architecture and Engineering 2002 and the C.O.A.M. Prize 2005.

Mansilla + Tuñón were awarded the following commissions: Institucional Building for the City of the Environment in Soria (2008), Madrid Internacional Convention Center (2007), Helga de Alvear Foundation Art Center in Cáceres (2005), Lalín Town Hall (2004), Master Plan of the area of Valbuena in Logroño (2003), Library on Artists Street in Madrid (2003), Cantabria Museum (2002). Royal Collections Museum (2002), Sanfermines Museum (200l), Brescia Contemporary Cultural Center of (2000), Castellón Fine Arts Museum (1998), City of León Auditorium (1996), Cultural Center of Madrid in the old El Águila warehouse (1995).

Alejandro Zaera-Polo is an architect and co-founder of London, Zurich and Princeton-based Alejandro Zaera-Polo and Maider Llaguno Architecture (AZPML).He graduated from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid with Honors and obtained an MARCH2 degree from Harvard GSD with Distinction. He worked at OMA in Rotterdam prior to establishing first FOA in 1993, and AZPA in 2011, the vehicles where he has developed a successful international professional practice since.

In parallel to his professional activities, Alejandro Zaera-Polo has developed a substantial role within academia. He was the Dean of the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam and currently occupies the Berlage Chair at the Technical university of Delft. He is also a Visiting Professor at Princeton University and the first recipient of the Norman R. Foster Visiting Professorship at Yale. He has published extensively as a theorist in El Croquis, Quaderns, A+U, Arch+, Volume, Log and many other international magazines and is a member of the London School of Economics Urban Age project.

Ángela García de Paredes (1958) and Ignacio García Pedrosa (1957) are architects from the Architecture School of Madrid, where they teach. Invited professors in other Spanish and foreign universities for teaching, critics and speakers. They founded Paredes Pedrosa Studio in 1990, after collaborating with José María García de Paredes for several years.

They are authors of, among other works, the Valdemaqueda Town Hall, Valle Inclán Theatre in Madrid, the Archaeological Museum of Almería, Peñíscola Auditorium, La Olmeda Roman Ville, Ceuta Library or the Lugo Auditorium. Their work has been recognized with the 2007 Spanish Architecture National Award, ar+d Award, Europan II and IV, Europa Nostra, Madrid Architecture Award, Mansilla Award, Gold Medal International Prize for Sustainable Architecture, Mediterranean Sustainable Architecture Award and 'Golden Medal for the Merit in Fine Arts' 2014, given by the Culture and Sports Spanish Ministery. Their work has been exhibited in many national and international architecture biennials.

Jose María Sánchez García was born in Don Benito (Badajoz) in 1975. He is an architect from the School of Architecture of Madrid (2002) and an associate professor of the same school.

In 2003, he received a scholarship from the Velázquez House, and in 2007-2008, the Academy of Spain in Rome.

At the international level, he has received awards like 1st prize of Architectural Review Emerging Architecture in 2009 (exhibition at the RIBA, London), was honoured as one of 10 emerging international studies by Architectural Record's Design Vanguard 2009 in New York, X Prize finalist Contractworld 2010 Hannover and was selected VII for Latin American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism, among others.

At the national level, he has been selected for the XI Spanish Architecture Biennale, winning 1st prize in Young Architecture, a Special Mention Award in the FAD 2010 Architecture, and 1st prize in the Nan V Awards of Architecture and Construction 2011, among others.

He has participated in national and international conferences and lectures at the Barcelona Open Biarch at Lusíada University of Porto, in Izmir (Turkey), at the Schools of Architecture of Malaga, Sevilla, Zaragoza, Madrid, Segovia, and at the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome.

He has also served as CISMEF09 international exhibition in Guangzhou, China, New York and Paris with exposure JAE Young Architects of Spain in Santiago Chile, Quito, Puerto Rico, Bogotá, Oran and Peru with 100% exposure Madrid at the RIBA in London, Athens and Moscow with the exhibition "Una ciudad llamada España" and with that of "35 + Exposición de Arquitectura Española" in Athens and Cyprus.