Architecture Category.
The jury recognized Recircular L'Eixample's ability to "programmatically and structurally reorganize a significant portion of the built heritage of a city block in Barcelona's Eixample district," facilitating "the emergence of synergies between diverse facilities." The project builds upon existing structures, offering new pedestrian walkways and public spaces that strengthen civic and community activity. The jury valued the public initiative that made it possible and the project's capacity to respond to a specific demand by going beyond the bare minimum. Furthermore, it highlighted that all of this is carried out "with a design language that helps to recognize the purpose of each space and prepares it for future demands in response to evolving civic needs."
Building for Infinito Delicias by Husos + elii. Photograph by José Hevia.
Regarding Infinito Delicias, a renovation project of an industrial building between party walls in Madrid that invites visitors to explore a new public facility belonging to a private foundation, the jury highlighted that "the building's organization is based on a continuous route that incorporates interior and exterior spaces, as well as a large atrium conceived as a public square." They also emphasized a "constant environmental awareness," evident in the materials used, the incorporation of vegetation and gardens, and the energy-saving strategies and promotion of biodiversity. "The entire building exhibits its bioclimatic vocation, prioritized above any other formal decision," the jury noted, highlighting how the original construction is broken down to allow the entry of outside air and provide support for the new vegetation, which will eventually blend seamlessly with the building's structure.
L’Anònima Manresana by Meritxell Inaraja. Photograph by Adrià Goula.
Re-FAD Category.
The jury has awarded the Re-FAD Prize to Meritxell Inaraja for her rehabilitation of the 19th-century industrial complex L'Anònima Manresana, based on energy efficiency strategies. The jury highlighted that the project "brings new spatial qualities without losing respect for the site's history." Climate galleries, interior courtyards, and perforations in the exterior floor improve ventilation, natural light, and comfort, maintaining the character of the original facades and creating new visual relationships between interior and exterior. The jury also emphasized that the intervention adds a new layer to the existing building through the use of existing materials, establishing continuity between past, present, and future interventions. The jury particularly valued "the ability to transform the demands of climate control and energy savings into values of architectural quality."
Urban Canopy—the tunnel area—in Parc de les Glòries, a project by the studios Agence Ter, ACPA, and Meta Engineering. Photograph by Fernando Lua+Droneit / BIMSA.
City and Landscape Category.
In the City and Landscape category, the winning project was the second phase of the Urban Canopy—the tunnel area—in Parc de les Glòries, a project by the studios Agence Ter, ACPA, and Meta Engineering. The jury highlighted the strategy of nodes and flows: the former function as spaces for biodiversity and urban use (meadows, play areas, and cactus gardens), while the latter guarantee ecological and pedestrian continuity throughout the urban canopy and Barcelona's major thoroughfares. In this regard, the jury valued that this system "allows the park to adapt to a dense and complex city, in a context of climate change and a shortage of green spaces, marking a shift from the 20th-century plaza to the permeable park of the 21st century." The jury justified the award based on "its urban ambition, its infrastructural complexity, and the enhancement of the Diagonal Verde (Green Diagonal)."
Limina installation at Chillida Leku by Garbizu Collar and KRI studios. Photography by Alex Abril.
Ephemeral Interventions Category.
The installation Limina, at Chillida Leku, has received the highest award in the Ephemeral Interventions category. Created by the studios Garbizu Collar and KRI, the intervention architecturally translates the proposal of artist Koen Vanmechelen, who uses the chicken as a metaphor to explore the relationships between art, science, politics, and nature. The jury highlighted that the project "questions the anthropocentric vision and emphasizes the coexistence of multiple agents within the ecosystem" and that it is materialized "through lightweight devices that barely touch the farmhouse, with suspended metal structures that engage with vernacular architecture and also recall rural constructions such as chicken coops or huts." In this sense, the mesh and galvanized tubing create artifacts that "not only support the works, but also activate a transspecies reading of the exhibition, de-hierarchizing the human and the non-human." The jury recognizes that the result is "an exhibition design where the display ceases to be neutral to become an active and pedagogical layer that enriches the artist's discourse and the visitor's experience."
House on Calle Argumosa in Madrid by MAIO. Photograph by José Hevia, Simone Marcolin.
Interior Design Category
The renovation of a home located on Argumosa Street in the center of Madrid, carried out by the MAIO studio, has been awarded in the Interior Design category. According to the jury, this intervention "completely transforms an initially bland interior into a domestic landscape of great spatial intensity." Beyond a conventional brick entrance, the space is reorganized through a diagonal circulation path and the incorporation of mirrored doors that multiply the perception of the interior. The jury highlights how the partition walls are replaced by curved wooden volumes that function simultaneously as structure, furniture, and spatial boundary, integrating storage, circulation, and enclosure, "generating a continuity between architecture and interior design." The mirrors, integrated as movable doors, "produce a changing and theatrical image, reinforcing the feeling of a fluid and mutable space." The result, for the jury, "is a home where the domestic becomes fluid, continuous, and perceptually unstable."
New museum of visual arts Abby Kortrijk by Barozzi Veiga + Tab Architects. Photograph by Simone Marcolin.
FAD International Award
This award recognizes the work of architects and studios from the Iberian Peninsula worldwide. In its 13th edition, the prize was awarded to Abby Kortrijk in Belgium by Barozzi Veiga and Tab Architects. The jury highlighted a "precise and measured approach to intervening in an existing structure, addressing it not as a limitation, but as an opportunity to construct a renewed architectural narrative." According to the jury members, "instead of imposing itself, the proposal works by enhancing, intensifying the presence and identity of the pre-existing structure and allowing it to reappear with clarity and renewed meaning." In this sense, they value the project for establishing a "sensitive dialogue between past and present, where each element reinforces the other." They also emphasized its commitment to an architecture "capable of transforming what already exists through subtle yet decisive operations, revealing its latent potential and projecting it into the present."
The FAD Thought and Criticism Award is shared by two projects: Floating in Lithium by Marina Otero and Towards Ecomorphology: Between Utopia and Reality by Anna Bofill.
The Habitàcola Award has been given to the (DES)BORDE project by ESDI student Sara Gómez Montolio, while the Educational Center Award has gone to the Madrid School of Architecture (ETSAM).
