FAD Award for Architecture for talent to improve the built heritage

BarcelonaThe FAD awards once again recognize improvement interventions in existing buildings. In the 68th edition, held this Wednesday night, the winners of the FAD Architecture Award are, ex aequo, the Recircular l'Eixample project, by Flexo Arquitectura and Addenda Architects, and Infinito Delicias, by Husos Arquitecturas and Elii [Oficina de Arquitectura]. Regarding Recircular l'Eixample, the jury recognizes the architects' ability to "programmatically and structurally reorganize" an important part of the built heritage of the Eixample block where the market, the library, and the Sagrada Família civic center are located. With the aim of strengthening citizen activity, the architects have generated new pedestrian passages and public spaces, and the jury also values the public initiative that makes it possible and the project's ability to go beyond the specific commission.

As for Infinito Delicias, it is the renovation of an industrial building in Madrid located between party walls, which invites us to enter a new public facility belonging to a private foundation. For the jury, the organization of the building is based on "a continuous route that incorporates interior and exterior spaces and a large atrium, understood as a public square". It also highlights an "ever-present environmental awareness", both in the materials used and in the introduction of vegetation and gardens, or with energy-saving strategies and the promotion of biodiversity. "The entire building exhibits its bioclimatic vocation, which it prioritizes over any other formal decision," the jury also states.

After receiving an FAD in the Opinion category a decade ago, the Maio studio has now received the award in the Interior Design category for the renovation of a home on Argumosa street, in the center of Madrid. According to the jury, their intervention "completely transforms an initially anodyne interior into a domestic landscape of great spatial intensity", with resources such as mirror doors that multiply the perception of the interior and curved wooden volumes that function simultaneously as structure, furniture, and spatial limit. The mirrors, integrated as mobile doors, "produce a changing and scenographic image, and reinforce the sensation of a fluid and mutable space".

A space in Glòries, awarded

The work recognized in the City and Landscape category is the second phase of the Urban Canopy, corresponding to the tunnel area of the Glòries Park, by the studios Agence Ter, ACPA, and Meta Engineering. It includes biodiversity and urban use spaces (lawns, play areas, or cactus gardens) and flows that ensure ecological and pedestrian continuity through the urban canopy and Barcelona's main thoroughfares. The jury values that this system "allows the park to adapt to a dense and complex city, in a context of climate change and a deficit of green spaces, marking a shift from the 20th-century square towards the 21st-century permeable park".

On the other hand, the installation Limina at Chillida Leku has achieved the highest recognition 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 hen as a metaphor to explore the relationships between art, science, politics, and nature. The jury highlights that the project "questions the anthropocentric view and values the coexistence of multiple agents within the ecosystem," and that this is materialized "through light devices that barely touch the ground, with metallic structures reminiscent of chicken coops.

Also in the field of intervention in existing works, architect Meritxell Inaraja has won the Re-FAD Award for the rehabilitation of the 19th-century industrial complex L'Anònima Manresana. The jury highlights that the project "brings new spatial qualities without losing respect for the memory of the place." To improve ventilation, natural lighting, and comfort, Inaraja has incorporated climate galleries, interior courtyards, and exterior ground perforations into the building, which has allowed her to maintain the character of the original facades. It also highlights that the intervention adds a new layer to the existing construction through the use of materials already present. Thus, Inaraja demonstrates her talent for "turning climate control and energy saving requirements into architectural quality values".

The remodeling of the historic complex of the Groeninge Abbey

, by Anna Bofill, the latter a text recovered and already published in the 70s.

In the Thought and Criticism category, the winners are, ex aequo, the books Flotando en litio, by Marina Otero, and Hacia la ecomorfología. Entre la utopía y la realidad, by Anna Bofill, the latter a recovered text already published in the 70s.