Award Ceremony - Pavilion Workplace Competition

USM and ADEYAKA BCN are proud to present the Award Ceremony of the international competition of ideas Pavilion Workplace. The event took place today, Thursday June 6th 2019 at the Mies van der Rohe Pavillion.

The competition, open to European architects, designers and students aiming to reflect upon work spaces, is organized by USM and ADEYAKA BCN in collaboration with Herman Miller and Tecno and the experience of the Fundació Mies van der Rohe. The Barcelona Pavilion, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich for the 1929 International Exhibition, was used as the contest’s setting.

Starting from the question 'Where is the boundary between home and work today?', and following the reflection began in 2018 under the motto #Homework, this year at USM we have been able to discover that work is more fun when we choose where to carry it out.

This is materialized in a third space that is emerging between home and work: coworking spaces, cafes, hotel lobbies, and libraries, where we work side by side with people we do not know. For that we decided to build four distinctive areas in the Pavilion, each representing one of the four conditions that help people to work better: Growing (inclusion of plants in the interior spaces), Meeting (the interaction of human to human in the physical space), Reflecting (pauses, to allow us to reflect on our values, our ambitions ...) and Learning (spaces for learning and creating).

Taking the above mentioned into account, the jury evaluated the projects submitted based on the following criteria:

- Architectural quality of the proposal

- Furniture integration

- Innovative vision on the workspace of the future

The diversity of ideas presented, the boldness of the implementation strategies of the proposals in the Barcelona Pavilion and the innovative integration of furniture by USM, Herman Miller and Tecno in each winning project was highlighted by the jury composed by Mercè Berengué (president), Ivan Blasi, Katrin Eckert and Carles Castellanos. The proposals received from Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Turkey, Slovakia and Romania among others; promote reflection and debate on the workspaces of tomorrow.

The 3 winning projects, chosen between 9 finalists, were reproduced with VR technology and were able to be visited virtually during the award ceremony.

The 6 finalists are:

- “…de mayor me gustaría ser niño”

Created by: Mariano Martín (Spain)

- “Concentration, Cooperation, Communication and Retreat”

Created by: Juraj Najar (Slovakia)

- “IKIGAI, la felicidad de la vida en el trabajo”

Created by: Álvaro Alcázar Del Águila, Desirée González Mata (Spain)

- “Lily's Oasis”

Created by: Irina Urriola (Spain)

- “This is not a work space”

Created by: Miguel Ángel Hernández Arias, Bernat Bastardas i Llabot (Spain)

- “Workplace your second home”

Created by: Subhodeep Maji (Germany)

The 3 winners are:

- “Materia Ausente”

Created by: Dos G Arquitectos: Ivan Grippaldi, Ginette Gotti Carvajal, Igor Grippaldi (Italy)

- “In Between”

Created by: Teodora-Stefania Visoiu, Natalia Nani (Romania)

- “Now & Next Office”

Created by: Mario Alberto Espinoza (Spain)

During the Award Ceremony, the winners received a piece of sponsored furniture and a trip for two people to the headquarters of one of the sponsors (USM in Münsingen, Switzerland; Herman Miller in Melksham, UK; Tecno in Milan, Italy). The prizes have been awarded by Katrin Eckart (USM International Planning Director), Mario Colombo (Herman Miller, Sales Director Iberia – Italy - East Mediterranean) and Tommaso Mosconi (Tecno spa Global Sales & Marketing Coordinator).

Furthermore a dinner—cocktails followed the ceremony where a lucky draw took place and an attendee won a new Herman Miller ergonomic chair and a USM piece.

The Pavilion Workplace competition follows the continuing collaboration of USM with the Mies van der Rohe Foundation. USM provides all the furniture for the Foundation´s headquarters and the Barcelona Pavillion’s bookstore while supporting the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award and the Young Talent Architecture Award.

ADEYAKA BCN equips and renovates professional spaces with the objective to integrate new technologies and create timeless, elegant and harmonious workplaces