The Richard H. Driehaus Architecture Competition, which aims to promote architectural and urban design practices that preserve and provide continuity to local traditions, has announced the winning projects of the 2017-2018 edition.
Following an initial phase in which Spanish municipalities were invited to submit potential themes and sites, the jury selected Baza (Granada), Borox (Toledo), and Trujillo (Cáceres) as the towns that best met the criteria and were deemed most viable for subsequent implementation.
Exceptionally, and thanks to funding provided by the local city council, the competition for Jaca (Huesca) was reopened after being declared vacant last year when none of the proposals met the competition guidelines.
In the second, international phase of the competition, architects of all nationalities were invited to submit architectural and urban design proposals for any of the four selected sites. Out of 74 submissions, the jury evaluated the proposals and selected those that best aligned with the competition criteria. The jury was chaired by Alejandro García Hermida and composed of Javier Cenicacelaya, Leopoldo Gil Cornet, Olga Roldán Laguarta, León Krier, Rafael Manzano Martos, Javier Martín Ramiro, Anselmo Menéndez, David Rivera, and Harriet Wennberg.
Baza. Granada, Andalusia
The proposed intervention in Baza aimed to revitalize and elevate the monumental complex located south of the medina along the Caz Mayor, a major canal that has historically irrigated Baza's agricultural plots. The goal was to provide the community with a new network of public spaces while restoring a heritage site that combines historical, architectural, ethnological, archaeological, and environmental value, which is currently neglected.
The first prize, worth €12,000, was awarded to architects Estefanía Fernández-Cid Fernández-Viña, Xavier Espinós Bermejo, Lucía Espinós Bermejo, and Rodrigo Toro Sánchez, who received an honorable mention last year for their project in Grajal de Campos.
Their project, titled “Agua” (Water), proposes reconstructing the convent's cloister, rehabilitating it for hotel use, and restoring the palace and its gardens, including the historic monumental pool that historically defined and supplied the site. It also revitalizes the surrounding streets by constructing buildings at the foot of the existing orchards that better match the town's identity. This design downplays the disproportionate apartment blocks built in recent decades, offering an architecture more appropriate for this historic district. The entire design centers on water, highlighted by the Caz Mayor canal and the orchard irrigation ditches, which structure an inviting pathway.
Due to the high quality of the remaining submissions, the jury awarded honorable mentions, each carrying a prize of €2,000, to three projects that also restore memory to the heritage site while creating a new green network for the town. These are: “Raíces” (Roots), by German-based Spanish architects Víctor Guimerá Millán and María del Pilar Rama Lara, whose project weaves the street grid together with recovered orchards and gardens; “Azarbe”, by the Granada-based team of Pablo Ibáñez Sánchez, Noemi Serrano Garrido, Ángel Vallecillo Zorrilla, and Juan Bachs Rubio, which features a magnificent architectural and landscape design that restores the former splendor of the cloister spaces; and “Carmen del Caz”, by Baza-based architects Luis León Ortiz, Álvaro Pulido López Camino, Adrián Marmolejo Clarhed, Daniel Usero Guerrero, with collaborators Marisol Valera González, Javier Gallego Roca, and Francisco Tristán García, a design also centered on water flowing through orchards and gardens.
Borox. Toledo, Castile-La Mancha
Borox proposed redesigning one of its main urban axes, Avenida Piedad Colón, along with its two primary public buildings: the Senior Center (Hogar del Jubilado) and the Municipal Library. Both structures currently disrupt the town's attractive traditional character and, following successive alterations, struggle to meet the community's needs.
The jury awarded the first prize of €12,000 to the American team of Patrick Alles, Matthew Blumenthal, and Megan Zhang, whose proposal best resolved the site at an urban scale. By relocating the new day center to the edge of the avenue, they expanded the existing garden area, created a new open public shelter in the middle of the new park, and established better visual connections to the town's landmarks and key areas—all using new buildings that harmonize with the local traditional architecture.
In addition, the jury awarded honorable mentions, each with a prize of €2,000, to three projects that presented highly appealing designs sensitive to vernacular forms, local materials, and regional craftsmanship: “Bosque de Ribera” (Ribera Forest), by Seville-based architects Elena Jiménez Sánchez and Abelardo Linares del Castillo (who were also recognized in this cycle for their Jaca proposal), which reorganizes the library while preserving as much of the existing structure as possible and proposes a new building for the Senior Center, both featuring outstanding architectural designs that capture the essence of the place; “Recuperación de nuestro reino cívico” (Restoration of Our Civic Realm), by the American team Fairfax, Sammons & Partners and SMI Landscape Architects, which lends both buildings the necessary civic and representative character, with remarkable attention to detailing; and “Entre la Piedra y el Agua” (Between Stone and Water), by architects Sara Martínez Sánchez from Toledo and Maribal González Arjona from Mallorca, a project where vegetation takes center stage and the Senior Center restores the local traditional building type by organizing it around a central courtyard lined with wooden galleries.
Jaca. Huesca, Aragon
In Jaca, the City Council proposed transforming the interior of a block within its historic center to create a unique public space in the heart of the city. This new square aims to revitalize the area, expanding the existing pedestrian network with the large public space this historic district requires.
The jury awarded the €12,000 first prize to the proposal “Pluribus Unum,” developed by Seville-based designers Abelardo Linares del Castillo-Valero and Elena Jiménez Sánchez, who also received an honorable mention for their Borox proposal. Their design introduces a vibrant and diverse new civic realm, drawing on the architectural legacy that has historically defined the city's character. The project leverages the fragmented layout of the plots to foster architectural variety, offering distinct designs for each of the proposed buildings. Special care is given to the facades of the new square, introducing natural light into the open passageways that connect it to the surrounding streets, and opening storefronts and arcades onto the square.
Although honorable mentions were not originally planned for this site, because the design competition was exceptionally reopened with the support and interest of the Jaca City Council, the jury decided to award a non-monetary honorable mention to the highly-rated proposal “Plaza de Santiago,” developed by the American firm Fairfax & Sammons Architects.
Trujillo. Cáceres, Extremadura
The Trujillo proposal, a joint initiative of the City Council and the Xavier de Salas Foundation, sought to enhance and revitalize the urban surroundings of the “Convento de La Coria” in the northwestern sector of the historic center, integrating it into the town's cultural and tourist routes. The project area included, on one hand, a natural landscape of significant value outside the city walls, where interventions were planned to make the walkway more pleasant and accessible without altering Trujillo's silhouette. On the other hand, it addressed the surroundings of the convent itself, which features several ruined plots, the now sparsely-used Plaza de Moritos, the local water tower, and other nearby public spaces currently underutilized by residents and visitors.
The jury selected “Kalathos” by Basque architects Aritz Díez Oronoz and Imanol Iparraguirre Barbero as the first-prize winner, awarded €12,000. The pair also won first prize in the 2016-2017 competition for their proposal in Grajal de Campos. Their project highlights the surroundings of the city wall through a series of small-scale interventions designed to emphasize the site's inherent character. It also proposes a new courtyard building within the ruined area inside the walls. This structure incorporates the finest qualities of local architecture, integrating into and enriching its context while providing a new public path connecting Plaza de Moritos with the Convento de La Coria.
Three honorable mentions, each receiving €2,000, went to: “Narrativas Pétreas” (Stone Narratives), by Granada-based architect Juan Moya Romero and collaborators Sara Lobón Ruiz and Sergio Sequí Sánchez—who won first prize in the 2016-2017 cycle for their proposal for Vejer de la Frontera—featuring a design that creates a wide plaza defined by the projected building, descending from Plaza de Moritos toward the new entrance to the Foundation's gardens; “Secuencias” (Sequences), by Granada architects Francisco Ibáñes Sánchez, Elena Morales Muñoz, María Zurita Elizalde, and Aida Caballero Sánchez, which connects streets and plazas at different levels through a central structure featuring a sequence of vaulted rooms opening in multiple directions; and “Bosque de Piedra” (Stone Forest), by the Cáceres-based team of Fernando Enríquez Martín and Manuel Viola Nevado, which splits the program into two distinct buildings, each organized around an atrium that connects them to the Plaza de Moritos and the Foundation's gardens, respectively.
The Richard H. Driehaus Architecture Competition is an international competition aimed at promoting architectural and urban design practices that preserve and provide continuity to local traditions. It is organized by INTBAU (International Network for Traditional Building Architecture and Urbanism), the Ministry of Public Works (Fomento) through the Directorate General of Architecture, Housing and Land, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport through the Directorate General of Fine Arts and Cultural Heritage and of Archives and Libraries, the Rafael Manzano Martos Prize, and the High Council of Spanish Architects' Associations (CSCAE).
This article was written by Javier García Librero. The translation is powered by AI.
