Announcement of the winners of the Young Talent Architecture Award

• Wroclaw, Madrid and Leuven are the schools the winning projects belong to

• 211 architecture, urban and landscape graduation projects were submitted by 268 students from over 100 Schools and 86 European cities

• 30 projects were selected and from this shortlist, the Jury considered 9 finalists. Finally 3 winners were chosen

• The granting ceremony has taken place today, October 28, at Teatro Piccolo Arsenale in Venice 

The Fundació Mies van der Rohe announced today in Venice, within the frame of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, the three winners of the Young Talent Architecture Award (YTAA) 2016.

YTAA is organised by the Fundació Mies van der Rohe with the support of Creative Europe - European Commission and World-Architects.com as Founding Partner. Sponsors to date include Vectorworks, A Nemetschek Company (USA), Albrecht Jung GmbH (Germany) and USM Modular Furniture (Switzerland).

YTAA 2016 received 211 projects from over 100 registered schools of architecture, urbanism and landscape architecture from 86 European cities. The Jury analysed all the proposals and reviewed the panels, drawings, briefs and videos submitted by participants before they drew up a shortlist of 30 projects.

From the shortlist, the Jury considered 9 finalist projects representing a broad view of Europe’s next generation of designers’ main interests. From the list of 9 finalists, 3 winners were chosen:

A symbiotic relation of cooperative social housing and dispersed tourism inHabana Vieja, by Iwo Borkowicz, Faculty of Architecture, University of Leuven.

The project proposes a simple and sustainable way to react to the dynamics of the demand of accommodation for tourists. The Jury appreciated the ‘glocal’ thinking which supports the local community in obtaining the tools to face the urban, economic and social changes that the city is undergoing.

S'lowtecture. Housing structure in Wroclaw-Zerniki, by Tomasz Broma, Faculty of Architecture, Wroclaw University of Technology.

Housing is a key topic in Europe today and the project understands the impermanence of our habitat. The Jury considered the importance of understanding architecture as an open process in an ever-changing environment and the potential to create a real time experimental FabLab connected to an innovative housing experience.

GeoFront. Strategic development plan for the frontier territories, by Policarpodel Canto Baquera, Madrid School of Architecture, Polytechnic University of Madrid.

The project addresses the topic of cohabitation and how borders (both political and geographical) can be transformed in order to make this cohabitation possible. This proposal approaches the role of design as a political tool, as a spatial practice within a new emergent socio-political space. The Jury was positively impressed by the amount of overlapping layers of complexity created and by the skilful designs and modelling to explain a newly imagined world.

Today, 28th October 2016, at a ceremony at Teatro Piccolo Arsenale in Venice the three YTAA Winners have been granted:

• 5.000€ each;

• a profile in World-Architects.com

• take part in the EUMiesAward exhibition

• a Vectorworks license

• USM furniture to design their workspace

• a diploma

The Winners will be supported in the creation of a network with the architects and critics involved in the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award. From now on each Winner will define a YTAA Plan of Action, which they will present on reception of the Award, along with a YTAA Final Report outlining their experience at the end of the year-long experience.

The YTAA 2016 Jury was formed by the following members

- Jose Luis Vallejo, Architect, Principle at Ecosistema Urbano, Madrid (President)

- Inge Beckel, Architect, Editor at the Swiss-Architects.com eMagazine, Zurich

- Michał Duda, Architecture Historian, Curator at Museum of Architecture, Wroclaw

- Juulia Kauste, Sociologist, Director at Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki

- Triin Ojari, Architect, Director at Museum of Estonian Architecture, Tallinn

The jury finds important to stress that this next generation of young professionals has studied abroad, across Europe and overseas, setting out their projects in a great diversity of environments worldwide. Of the total 211 projects, 32%are located outside Europe, while 26% of the remaining 179 projects are designed for countries different from those where the students have trained.

The finalists selected were all projects that address and set out to solve a major contemporary urban issue. They primarily focus on the historical context, its conversion and transformation. Infrastructural projects deal with mobility and face new challenges in which the city is not car-focused; instead, slow mobility is addressed by designers and not exclusively by mobility experts. These projects also deal with different scales, from the territory to the construction of objects indifferent contexts, as well as creating hypothetical environments for more utopian projects.

Finalists:

Death and Life of a Small French city, Alix Sportich du Réau de la Gaignonnière, Alice Villatte from eav&t_Champs-sur-Marne_FR

Brewing Democracy: The Assembly of Le Balai Citoyen in Ouagadougou, Lorenzo Perri from AA_London_UK

Genesis of a place towards the project, David Gonçalves Monteiro from FAUP_Porto_PT

Living in a cultural environment, Clàudia Carreras Oliver from ETSALS_Barcelona_ES

Living in offices. The alive triangle of Bordelongue in Toulouse, Jaufret Barrot, Cinthia Isabel Carrasco Fuentes from ENSA_Toulouse_FR

Subversions Minhocao, Laura Abbruzzese from DA_Ferrara_IT

About YTAA

YTAA aims to support the talent of recently graduated Architects, Urban Planners and Landscape Architects who will be responsible for transforming our environment in the future. YTAA has emerged from curiosity about and interest in the initial stages in these students’ development and a desire to support their talent as they enter into the professional world.

YTAA brings together the most talented graduated architects and the best architecture firms. Schools were asked to nominate Graduation Projects through internal debates. YTAA winners will have the chance to find comprehensive strategies enhancing synergies and complementarities with the firms and work with the studio of their choice.