Promoted by Saint-Gobain Latinoamérica and co-organized by the Pan American Federation of Architectural Associationsthe prize BROUGHT to Latam 2023-2024 highlights works and projects that demand wisdom in design, offer low-cost solutions linked to the site, available resources and nature, and that generate design strategies to minimize the impact of the construction and maintenance of buildings.
With those premises of sustainable designarchitects and architecture students from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay were invited to a contest that distributed more than US$140,000 in prizes.
This year, the awards ceremony took place in Buenos Aires and the chosen stage was one of the rooms of the Teatro Colón.
The selection was carried out by a international jury composed of the architects Gerardo Montaruli (FPAA), Javier Gimeno (Saint-Gobain), Josep Ferrando (Spain), Nicolás Campodónico (Argentina), Lilian Dal Pian (Brazil), Felipe Assadi (Chile), Camilo Restrepo Ochoa (Colombia), Gabriela Carrillo (Mexico), Patricia Llosa Bueno (Peru) and Marcelo Danza (Uruguay).
In the category of professionalsthe jury made a first selection of 59 proposals, of which 32 became finalists. And then, there were the first three prizes.
In the case of students, for Academic Recognitionmade a first large selection of 12 projects, of which three were finalists and only one was awarded.
Of them, the Argentine project “New Industrial Landscapes”work of Laura Pazwho obtained recognition for academic practice. The proposal was developed in the last year of his degree at the National University of Córdoba.
The author, at the time, had worked with Mateo Boasso and, in 2022, they were one of the winning teams of the Clarín SCA National Student Award, whose 2024 edition is currently open.
In the professional category there were three awards. The first, ADUS Latam Oro, was for the Pivadenco Rural Schoolof Cristián Larraín and Rodrigo Duque Motta, from Chile. The Silver Award distinguished the Mexican team led by Rozana Montiel and your project CIVAC Lineal Park, Civic Center and Skatepark. While the Bronze Award went to Martín Dulanto, from Perufor his work Manire House.
Finally, the Lifetime Achievement Award It was for the Brazilian architect Décio Tozzifor his contribution to the architecture of the region.
Architecture as opportunity
The project of Laura Paz search revitalize sacrificed areas, obsolete and monofunctional infrastructures, promoting a diverse industry that enhances the local economy and generates public spaces, promoting social dynamics.
A key resource in this process is seaweedincreasingly in demand worldwide for its ability to absorb water pollution and promote the growth of the ecosystem.
It focuses on three places of interestall of great environmental importance and seriously affected by pollution from the oil industry: Caleta Córdova, Comodoro Rivadavia and Bahía San Sebastián.
The jury described it as a suggestive project. “A device of simple, modular construction and easy transport is designed to float anchored in non-invasive concrete ‘deads’ of the seabed. In the sum and coupling of modules, it manages to form a complex, diverse and equidistant object between architecture, ephemeral fair device and marine ship,” described the jury.
And he adds that it approaches the coast “in an alternative way to that offered by the architectures that traditionally occupy these spaces, without giving up the exquisiteness of detail and to fine design”.
Meet real needs
Of the Pivadenco Rural Schoolthe jury rescued the general strategies to conceive the project. In the social aspect, highlighted the search for equity and access in the desire to provide educational and cultural services to a rural community in the Araucania area. He also praised the role of the building as reference and meeting space of the community, beyond educational tasks.
As for the physical sustainabilitythe ruling highlighted the passive design decisions that together operate to create a comfortable building with low energy consumption. Besides, valued the use of wood not only because of the sustainable conditions but because of its deep roots in the culture and knowledge of the inhabitants of the region.
“It should be noted that this rural school comes to satisfy real needs from public funds and that the project was commissioned after the celebration of a public contest of architecture”, the jury closed.
Build spatial dignity
The jury praised the CIVAC Civic Center and Linear Park for its public space that “from simple resources a path is made with an elongated park that breaks its length with a series of programmatic grafts to rest, stop, exercise, skate and read.”
One of the great virtues, according to the jury, was the decision to give him the same hierarchy to landscape as to architecture and to all the different actions that the project promotes.
“The use of limited and strategic resources shows that it is possible to build spatial dignity with intelligence and limited economiesputting architecture at the service of the local population, reinforcing the idea of decent space as a universal right, this being one of the most important values for this recognition,” he emphasized.
Sensitive and responsible
The jury considered relevant evaluate a residential typology “for being a still significant space in the work of architects in our region and constitutes a challenge in the reflection of our field in relation to contemporary living and the responsibility for sustainable solutions in the broadest aspect.”
The Manire Housethe Bronze Award, takes care of its contact with the ground, relating in a respectful of trees that surround it and, by proposing a compact solution, generates a controlled footprint.
An outstanding value was that Dulanto and Puna Estudio revalue artisanal tradition in Peru, incorporating it from local work in the construction process.
Regarding the material approach, the use of an austere steel structure that is covered in certified wood. And in use, it raises the need for a slower way of lifewhere the relationship with nature is experienced directly from the interior of its spaces.
In short, the jury chose her for addressing the issue of housing from a sensitive and responsible understanding of the place where it is located.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Décio Tozzi was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1936. He entered the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie (FAU/Mackenzie) in 1956 and graduated in 1960. While studying, won the competition for the Paraplegic Housein support of the charity campaign led by Gregori Warchavchik.
In 1962 founded the firm Décio Tozzi Arquitetura e Urbanismoreceiving awards at the São Paulo Modern Art Salon and the São Paulo International Biennial.
For his work as a whole, Tozzi obtained the Rino Levi awards, from the Institute of Architects of Brazil (IAB), in 1971, and the prize awarded in 1976 at the National Architecture Exhibition of the IX Brazilian Congress of Architects.
In addition to working in his studio, he dedicates himself to teaching and research activities. He designed the Villa-Lobos Park (1994) in São Paulo and, in his book Arquiteto Décio Tozzi (1995), you can see his main works.