Architecture
First Prize: The “Castilla La Mancha Archives in Toledo” by Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra.
Runner up: “Home and Integrated Care Centre for the Mentally Handicapped” by José Mª de la Puerta Montoya and Carlos Asensio Galvín

Interior design: “Ceramic carpets” by Roldán+Berengué, Architects.

Degree Projects:
Equal First Prize: “School Complex in Pinedo”, by Mª del Mar Rico Fernández; and “San Vicente de la Barquera Nature Study Centre”, by Begoña Soto Trujillo.
Runner up: “Benicarló Urban Cultural Centre” by Samuel Cornelles Balagué.

The jury for the Vth Tile of Spain Architecture and Interior Design Awards chaired by architect Mathias Klotz decided during a meeting held last 23rd November, to award first prize in the Architecture category to a project titled “Castilla La Mancha Archives in Toledo” by Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra, who is also a winner of the National Prize for Architecture.

“The jury has highlighted how the project brings together the use of and research into the use of ceramic tiles for facades. The way the skin of the building has been arranged to fit the internal space is considered to be highly appropriate given the building’s function.”

The jury also decided in its meeting to award a runner-up prize to the “Integrated Care Centre for the Mentally Handicapped” entered by José Mª de la Puerta Montoya and Carlos Asensio Galvín, “for the precision of its construction and conceptual determination to create the building using just one material yet without sacrificing details and elements of special interest, particularly in the roof.”

One prize was awarded in the Interior Design category, to a project titled “Ceramic Carpets” by Roldán+Berengué Arquitectos. The salient feature of this project for the jury was “how the best use has been made of the existing tiling, which now sits happily alongside the new tiles. The new and the old have been treated with consideration, which means that each has been made to look its best without upstaging the other.”

Degree Projects Category

The Tile Awards include a category that is designed to honour Degree Projects undertaken by students of Architecture from anywhere in Spain.

The jury agreed to award equal first prize to two projects: the “School Complex in Pinedo” by Mª del Mar Rico and the “San Vicente de la Barquera Nature Study Centre”, by Begoña Soto Trujillo.

The feature of the “School Complex in Pinedo” by Mª del Mar Rico that struck the jury was “the even way in which she has resolved the constructional and functional aspects of the buildings, with equal amounts of precision and sensitivity. The jury feels that the variety obtained by working an open construction system that affords a diverse range of ways of handling the relationship with the environment outside the building is outstanding.”

“Begoña Soto’s project – the “San Vicente de la Barquera Nature Study Centre” – is remarkable for its spatial richness. The architectural experience it offers the user ranges from the relationship between the tiles to the tactile nature of the surfaces used to construct the building. Every element works as a blend of independence and a sense of being part of the whole, with the ceramic tiles being the core element that pulls everything together.”

The jury has also decided to award a runner-up prize to the “Benicarló Urban Cultural Centre” by Samuel Cornelles Balagué. “This project resolves a difficult urban situation. What should be singled out here is the use of a ceramic tiles that, as they are set in different positions, create a facade that is full of subtleties.”

About the Tile Awards
The prizes are 18,000 Euros for the architecture category, 18,000 Euros in the interior design category and 9,000 Euros in the Degree Projects category. Vodafone España, PortValencia and the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade’s State Council for the Development of Design and Innovation (D.Di) have supported this initiative, which aims to promote and create a prestige image for the use of ceramic tiles in architecture and interior design.

A total of 46 projects were entered for this fifth competition. The Awards have evolved significantly thanks to the increasing quality of the projects entered. Some of the work honoured in the architecture category in the most recent Awards includes: the Spanish Pavilion a the Aichi Expo in Japan (by Alejandro Zaera Polo and Farshid Moussavi, FOA Architects), the renovation of Santa Caterina Market in Barcelona (by Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue, EMBT Arquitectes) and the Peñíscola Conference Centre (by Ángela García Paredes and Ignacio García Pedrosa).

The chairman of the jury is eminent Chilean architect Mathias Klotz, whilst members include leading professionals such as Juan Herreros of Ábalos&Herreros Arquitectos; José Morales of MGM Arquitectos: Morales+Giles+Mariscal; Carlos Quintáns, architect and editor of Tectónica magazine; interior designer Isabel López, of Tarruella&López; Martí Guixé, the designer and Ramón Monfort, president of the Castellón School of Architects.