On Spain's Costa Brava, the little-known brutalist housing block Les Feixes, in L'Estartit, becomes the main stage of "Caçador de Geometries" (Geometry Hunter), a short film produced by Simon and directed by filmmaker Matilda Vidal de Llobatera. Its premiere marks the launch of the sixth edition of the Living Places – Simon Architecture Prize, the only award that uses video to explain architecture from the perspective of those who inhabit it. Curated by Fundació Mies van der Rohe since 2016, it is now open and, coinciding with its tenth anniversary, it joins the program of Barcelona 2026, World Capital of Architecture.
Designed in the 1970s by architect Josep Maria Pla i Torras, Les Feixes was conceived as a shared summer residence for a group of friends and families seeking a second home on the Costa Brava. After a trip to the United States that exposed him to the work of Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright, Pla took a risk on a complex, steeply sloped plot facing the sea. The result is an unconventional building: a cluster of hexagonal modules resembling a beehive, wrapped in terraces that let light, landscape, and nature filter into the units throughout the day.
Vidal de Llobatera, winner of the prize's Best Audiovisual Narrative award in the previous edition for "Quinze Decibels" — made with Cierto Estudio and B67 Palomeras Arquitectes for the Consell de Cent Green Hub in Barcelona —turns the geometries of Les Feixes into the emotional core of the imagined experience of one of its inhabitants. Echoing Wes Anderson's visual universe, the film follows a character obsessed with straight lines, symmetry, and pure forms who gradually learns to see the world differently. The narrator finds living mathematical structures in birds' wings, fractal vegetation, and, above all, the regular hexagon, valued for maximising space and conserving resources. The hexagon becomes a symbol of order, efficiency, and beauty, linking insects and architects. Ultimately, the film contrasts rigid straight lines with a new curiosity for curves, celebrating the meeting of rational design and organic wilderness. The building operates simultaneously as set and as source of inspiration for this visual exploration of architecture, perception, and everyday inhabitation.
The film was presented on May 27 at the prize's launch event at La Casa de la Llum, the showroom inside Simon's Switch corporate headquarters in Barcelona. The film's premiere coincides with the launch of this year's call for entries, which is open until September 14 to projects from any European country, as well as Mexico, Brazil, and, for the first time, Morocco. Participants choose between two categories, "Personal Places" and "Collective Places," and submit their entries via simonprize.org. This year's jury—Fernanda Canales (chair), Benjamín Iborra of Mesura, Sesi Bergeret, Wojciech Mazan of RZUT and PROLOG, and Salvi Plaja, Global Chief Design Officer at Simon—will select five finalists per category before choosing the two winners, who will each receive €10,000 and a trophy carved from volcanic basalt by designer Andreu Carulla.
Living Places – Simon Architecture Prize is the only architecture award that uses video to understand a project from the perspective of the people who live in, use, and experience it. Since its beginning in 2016, Living Places has received more than 750 project submissions from architecture firms in over 34 countries. The winners of the previous edition were Kontigo, by Manuel Cervantes Estudio, in Acapulco (Personal Places), and Coconut Harvester Center, by Estudio Flume, in Maranhão, Brazil (Collective Places).