FAD 2025 Award for the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute

BarcelonaThe 2025 FAD Architecture Award, presented tonight during a gala held at the Teatre Lliure, went to two emblematic names in the Catalan architecture scene. Jordi Badia and Miquel Espinet, along with Jero Gutiérrez, won for the "high quality" and "elegance and precision" of the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute, according to the jury. "Based on an intelligent strategy of topographical insertion, it successfully reorganizes the university campus by integrating a building of more than 17,000 m² into the urban fabric with special sensitivity to the context," the jury states. The jury praised the building for "not only successfully resolving a complex topography and a demanding functional program, but also generating a city: creating new pedestrian routes, transforming the concept of a teaching and research building into a friendly and accessible space, and incorporating its roof as a viewing platform and public space open to the public."

The winning project in the City and Landscape category is for the urban redevelopment of Riells Square, by Comas-Pont Arquitectes, to "recover part of the old town for the public, in dialogue with the surrounding landscape." The jury praised the project for uncovering "an old, forgotten well hidden beneath the square, which ends up redrawing the geometry of the ground and channeling rainwater beyond its limits."

In the Interior Design category, the winner is La Nave, a project by Atienza Maure Arquitectos that transforms a former factory in Barcelona into offices for a technology company and the home of one of the founders. The jury praised "the ingenuity in the development of a prefabricated construction system that provides an effective response to the needs and limitations of the brief."

As for Ephemeral Interventions, the winner was Seasonal house: a domestic climate-driven experiment, a project by Takk studio that emerged with the intention of transforming a 400 m² industrial space into a home and is constantly evolving. The jury highlights "the surprising tangent of a house deconstructed into small worlds [...] where the inhabitant is a climate nomad within their home, self-built with the remains of their own work." The jury also awarded a special mention to the exhibition.100 IKEA items we wish we had in Vinçon, organized by DHub and with exhibition design by Maio Studio. The jury emphasizes that the exhibition design addresses the two display areas of the exhibition in a differentiated way. In the first section, it proposes "a metal element as an assembly element, for the creation of the different supports." In the second area and heart of the exhibition, it presents 100 IKEA objects hanging on the wall, so that they can be observed from a different perspective, removed from their functionality.

The Harquitectos win the Re-FAD Award

The jury also recognized the Harquitectes studio, which won the FAD last year. ex aequo, with the Re-FAD award for the renovation of the Vapor Cortés in Terrassa. Its intervention "sensitively transforms a former industrial complex into a functional open facility." The jury also highlighted its construction strategy, which "takes advantage of pre-existing elements and demonstrates a commitment to reuse and sustainability."

In the category of the International FAD Awards, which recognize the work of architects and studios from the Iberian Peninsula worldwide, the project won.Crackle in the reel, Gonzalo Peña Sancho, Ilse Cardenas, Diego Escamilla, Fujan Fahmi, Lucía Espinosa de los Monteros García Frías, and Federico Lepre. It is a "mechanical environment" in a Lausanne parking lot consisting of a series of cracks in the asphalt that allow vegetation to emerge, irrigation devices, and water features that facilitate the growth of the new garden.