Winners of the 5th Simon Architecture Prize

The biennial Simon Architecture Prize aims to address global challenges of socio-environmental impact through short videos that show architectural projects in use. This week's news comes just two weeks after ten finalists — five in each category — were announced. The jury for the fifth edition of the prize was chaired by Andrés Jaque and included Amanda Sans, Verena Von Beckerath, Gabriela de Matos, and Salvi Plaja.

The winning work in the Collective Places category is Coconut Harvester Center. It documents an architectural project in Sumaúma Village, in the north of Brazil, designed by Estudio Flume and built with compressed earth bricks. The video was created by Luara Oliveira.

WATCH VIDEO HERE

“Coconut Harvester Center embodies the collective concept based on inclusivity built through a small community of women and their productive work, taking care of and preserving the natural environment in which they are rooted. It is a subtle and emotive project, with a very carefully and intelligently detailed design, based on the reuse of materials from nearby. The audiovisual piece expresses the interrelationship existing between the community of women, architecture and the natural ecosystem to which they belong, celebrating the sense of beauty and authenticity exuded.”

The winning work in the Personal Places category is Kontigo. It documents housing for victims of Hurricane Otis in Acapulco, Mexico, an architectural project in by Manuel Cervantes Estudio, who also created the video. 

WATCH VIDEO HERE

“Kontigo is a project that addresses the climate emergency from direct action. It corresponds to a specific place and context, shown through multiple levels of the present. It is a contribution to bring broader issues to the table, arising from a specific project. It shows the importance of the process and alludes to unfinished construction. It addresses the urgency of how to build modest new homes with dignified spatial qualities by deploying a rich sequence of intermediate spaces. The video very directly and starkly shows both the context of destruction and this architecture which has already become the support for domestic life.”

In addition to the two category prizes, the jury also granted a prize for Best Audiovisual Narrative, giving it to Quinze decibels, a finalist in the Collective Places category. Created by Matilda Vidal de Llobatera, the piece presents the urban regeneration project Consell de Cent Green Hub in Barcelona, a work by Cierto Estudio and B67 Arquitectes.
 

“Quinze decibels is a poetic and beautiful piece that uses sound as a narrative motif to describe the space and the impact of urban transformation that it embodies. The high quality of the surrounding atmosphere created is conveyed, placing the focus on its acoustics, those of a new ecosystem in the middle of the European city.”