This special edition features two Grand Prizes: BigMat Grand Prize for Architecture awarded to Fish Market in Roquetas de Mar, Spain, by Estudio ACTA and Grand Prize for Small-Scale Residential awarded to Casa no Tâmega, Portugal, by Hugo Ferreira and Nuno Melo Sousa.

This two projects follow « The Melopee School » by Xaveer De Geyter, winner in 2021, Power Plant for the “FOZ TUA” DAM by Souto de Moura, winner in 2019, the FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais art center by Lacaton&Vassal, 2017, the office building by Alberto Campo Baeza, 2015, and the Elishout Kitchen Tower Campus, also by Xaveer De Geyter in 2013, as Grand Prizes of the biannual award.

The sixth edition of the prize aims to acknowledge and reward quality architectural production in Europe featuring in this year’s edition two Grand Prizes: a new Grand Prize for Small-Scale Residential (€30,000) and the already traditional BigMat Grand Prize for Architecture (€30,000).

Among the over 1000 projects submitted to the competition, the final jury held in Madrid and composed of David Van Severen, Petr Janda, Gilles Delalex, Enrico Molteni, Nuno Brandão Costa, Ángela García de Paredes, Jesús Aparicio, President of the Award, and Jesús Donaire, acting as Secretary, selected the 15 finalist projects to compete in Seville for the two Grand Prizes and the national awards of Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, and Spain.

The awards ceremony took place in the city of Seville last Friday 17, on which the final National Winners and Grand Prizes were revealed. The complete list of winners goes as follows:

GRAND PRIZES

BigMat International Architecture Award Grand Prize for Architecture ’23 (30,000 euros)
Fish Market and South Area Remodeling in Roquetas de Mar, Spain by Estudio ACTA

The project aims “to mediate between both worlds, greenhouses and boats. One of the goals of the project is to improve the Port-City relationship and for this the first decision is to free the area of old buildings to create new synergies with the city, grouping different uses in a single volume […]. The building aims to be very open and receptive to outside gazes but at the same time controlled in its circulations […]. For the city, the new building aims to be a tribute to the world of the sea in the soft curves, tension and texture of its envelope: sails, nets, ropes,… provide silhouettes, colors and even materials for the building. […]”

BigMat International Architecture Award Grand Prize for Small-Scale Residential ’23 (30,000 euros)
Casa no Tâmega, Portugal by Hugo Ferreira + Nuno Melo Sousa

The project by the small-scale residential architecture award-winning architect has “a simple order: a house with four bedrooms, living room, kitchen, swimming pool and a barbecue. The terrain was complex […]. A concrete volume sculpted with fine and thick patterns hides the river, imposing its opaque horizontality. Open from the inside to each different dimension of a rugged topography: the river, the hill, the quarry. A concrete base made from local stone is a staircase and structural base – the support that divides the private and public spaces of the house […]. Materiality is a return to this same place; the pieces that make up the facade: the stereotomy veins are Stone veins created on site, together with sand, water and mortar on pine wood boards […]”

NATIONAL WINNERS AND SPECIAL MENTIONS

BigMat International Architecture Award Special Mention for Young Architects ’23 (1,500 euros)
Underground Patio – Renovation of an ordinary house, Lecco, Italy, by Stefano Larotonda

BigMat National Prize for Small-Scale Residential in Belgium’23 (1,500 euros)
jtB House by BLAF Architecten

BigMat National Prize for Architecture in Belgium’23 (1,500 euros)
ECAM (Ecole Centrale des Arts et Métiers) by Agwa

BigMat National Prize for Small-Scale Residential in the Czech Republic’23 (1,500 euros)
Suburban villa by NACHÁZEL ARCHITEKTI

BigMat National Prize for Architecture in the Czech Republic’23 (1,500 euros)
Reconstruction of the former historical slaughterhouse, in Ostrava by KWK Promes

BigMat National Prize for Small-Scale Residential in France’23 (1,500 euros)
M26 in Toulouse, France, by BAST

BigMat National Prize for Architecture in France’23 (1,500 euros)
Transformation of an office building into 52 apartament units by DATA Architectes

BigMat National Prize for Small-Scale Residential in Italy’23 (1,500 euros)
Bivacco Fanton by DEMOGO studio di architettura

BigMat National Prize for Architecture in Italy’23 (1,500 euros)
Bicocca by SUPERLAB BALANCE ARCHITETTURA + Studio Corradino Petitti

BigMat National Prize for Architecture in Portugal’23 (1,500 euros)
Azores Wine Company Winery by SAMI-arquitectos

BigMat National Prize for Small-Scale Residential in Slovakia’23 (1,500 euros)
Pernek by ksa studeny

BigMat National Prize for Architecture in Slovakia’23 (1,500 euros)
Jelšava Cabins by 2021 ARCHITEKTI

BigMat National Prize for Small-Scale Residential in Spain’23 (1,500 euros)
Ca na Catalina i en Joan by TEd’A ARQUITECTES