The TAC! Urban Architecture Festival is an initiative led by the General Directorate for Urban Agenda and Architecture of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility, and Urban Agenda (MITMA), in collaboration with the Arquia Foundation. It is aimed at young architects to design and build a temporary pavilion that will host exhibitions, meetings, and activities.
This annual initiative aims to connect contemporary architecture and young practices with reflections on urban and social issues. Its main goal is to highlight young architecture in Spain by fostering talent and offering the winners the opportunity to build a landmark public work.
The festival's concept is to transform a Spanish city each year into a space for innovation and experimentation through the construction of a temporary pavilion. To this end, each edition will feature two open calls: a design ideas competition for the temporary pavilion that will host the TAC! programming, and a call for municipalities to host the festival in a different Spanish city each year, thereby bringing contemporary architecture and the talent of young architects to various parts of the country.
The first edition will be held in Granada, with Plaza del Humilladero selected to host the pavilion from October 14 to November 14. In this city, the jury met on Monday, July 25, to deliberate and choose the winner from among the 95 submissions.
The jury comprised experts Iñaquí Carnicero (General Director of Urban Agenda and Architecture and jury president), Lesley Lokko, Sol Candela Alcover, Carmen Moreno, Inês Lobo, José Vallejo, and Javier Peña Ibáñez.
The winning project was "Aire" by P + S Estudio de arquitectura, highlighted for its ability to offer a sheltered space in dialogue with the large scale of the city. According to the jury, it enables multiple uses in relation to its surroundings. As the first-prize winner, P + S Estudio de Arquitectura will receive a €10,000 prize and will build the pavilion in Granada with an estimated base budget of €90,000, which may be expanded through sponsorships.
In addition, two runner-up proposals, praised for their innovative character, were selected and awarded cash prizes: Estudio Ramos Alderete in second place with the project "La Casa del Aire," and the project "4GU45" by architects Alejandro Infantes Pérez and María Reyes Rodríguez Escudero in third place. Finally, the jury awarded four honorable mentions which, though not among the top winners, are of great interest for their architectural quality, as well as their structural integrity and construction coherence: the projects "Aljibe," "Big John," "Chopo Activo," and "Puerta de Emergencia."
The large number and variety of proposals, along with the diverse nationalities of their authors—including Chile, Denmark, Germany, and China—demonstrate the widespread interest this inaugural call received beyond Spain's borders.
Below, we present the winning projects.
First Prize: Aire / P + S Estudio de Arquitectura
The proposal stands out for combining a natural material like esparto grass, which has a strong local artisanal tradition, with a modular structural system. It is also noted for its volume, which changes between day and night, making the piece "a visible and representative icon in the public space of Plaza del Humilladero," according to the jury.
P + S Estudio de Arquitectura was founded in Madrid in 2019 by Francisco Javier Parada Pino and Laura R. Salvador González, the architects behind the proposal. For the development of the festival's winning project, the studio collaborated with architects Paloma Pantoja Gallinal and Ricardo Sousa Melo.
The studio P + S views the practice of architecture and urbanism as a collaborative research and work method, focusing on researching processes of indeterminacy, thermodynamics, and entropy applied to the practice of architecture and urbanism.
Second Prize: La Casa del Aire / Estudio Ramos Alderete
The proposal stands out for its high plasticity and poetic quality, reformulating the concept of a tent in a contemporary way. Additionally, it incorporates recycled materials into a scenography full of possibilities. The team is led by architect Pablo Ramos Alderete, with Jaime Ramos Alderete, Jorge Ramos Alderete, and Ana Isabel Santolaria Castellanos as co-authors, and the collaboration of Inés Querejeta Martín and Luisa Moreno Palacios.
Third Prize: 4GU45 / Alejandro Infantes Pérez and María Reyes Rodríguez Escudero
The proposal shows great sensitivity in the renaturalization of urban space, emotionally connecting it with its environment by incorporating vegetation referencing the landscape of the fertile plain (vega) of Granada in a highly evocative design.
Honorable Mentions
Aljibe / Paloma Baquero Masats, Juan Antonio Serrano García, and Tomás García Píriz
Big John / Estudio meii
Chopo Activo / Ignacio de Teresa, Lucía de Molina, Xianjun Zhou, and Ignacio Hornillos
Puerta de Emergencia / Luis Durbán García, Lourdes Durbán García, Lucía Guzmán Martínez, Rafael Pérez Ariza, Irene Sánchez Sánchez, and Guillermo Soria Alonso
Learn more on the official TAC! Festival website.
This article was written by Mili Sánchez Azcona. The translation is powered by AI.
