Spain’s Europan 15 jury gathered in Innsbruck, on 21 October, and awarded 6 first prizes, 8 second prizes and 14 special mentions across the various locations presented at the contest aimed at young architects.
Oliva’s project, Els Rajolars: Resilient Regeneration, has led to 5 teams being rewarded for the proposals they presented. Specifically, the Oliva project won a first prize, a second prize and three special mentions. The teams awarded for the project presented in Oliva were:
TOP PRIZE
KH588 / PRODUCTIVE MEMORIES. Luis Bernardo Vaamonde, Ana Méndez Garzo, Ignacio Burgos González.
KF520 / EVEN A BRICK WANTS TONO BE SOMETHING. Adrián de Arriba Ramos, Estela Darriba Estévez, Guillermo Pomar Blanco, Miguel Fernández Di Stefano.
Special Mention 1
EL278 / LOOK BACK, MOVE FORWARD! Irene Benet Morera, Marta Benet Morera. (architects from Oliva)
Special Mention 2
LQ736 / LOOP-SETTLING. Yasmina Juan Osa, Jorge Juan Roy Pérez, Alejandro Martínez Del Río, Ana Maria Villalba Benajas, Brandon Henao Meléndez, Ana Vargas Núñez, Elisa García Capilla, Pascual Herrero Vicent, Anna Morro Peña, Víctor Muñoz Macian, Fernando Navarro Carmona (architect from Oliva), Francisco Piño Alcaide, Maria Pitarch Roig, Sara Juanes Herrera, Sergio Estruch González, Rebeca Piñol Muria.
Special Mention 3
SF036 / LATTICE-WORK. Belén Bravo Rodríguez, Iñigo López Veristain, Daniel Gómez de Zamora Martínez, Ana Alicia Martínez Tejada.
In this edition of the Europan 15 Contest, Oliva was the site with the second-highest number of architect teams presenting proposals, the seventh highest in all of Europe. Oliva’s Els Rajolars: Resilient Regeneration project received 26 entries (4 Spanish and 4 foreign, from France, Poland, Germany and Italy) of which 7 were selected for the final phase.
It should also be noted that, within the three special mentions granted to teams of architects for the project Els Rajolars: Resilient Regeneration, there are three young people from Oliva itself: Irene and Marta Benet Morera with their project Look back, move forward and Fernando Navarro Carmona who was part of the Loop-Settling project.
The mayor of Oliva, David González, has shown his satisfaction both with the number of projects presented and awarded and with the high standard achieved by the participating teams. To this end, he acknowledged that the involvement of Oliva’s City Council has been key since the very first moment, in 2018, in conjunction with Valencia’s regional government, the Generalitat Valenciana. Work will now focus on evaluating the proposals and planning a new city model that addresses future challenges and whose urban management is feasible, combining the ideas proposed with proposals from the owners of the affected properties, other citizens, social agents and productive sectors.
The Councillor for Urban Planning, Miguel Monzonís has indicated that it is now necessary to begin another process to build consensus among the prize-winning projects and establish the foundations of the desired intervention in the Els Rajolars area of Oliva. We are satisfied with the projects presented and I think that the international jury agrees, because this is reflected in the results of the contest. The sensitivity with which the area’s heritage has been handled and the way it has been intertwined with the new ideas for the city is remarkable.
In Spain, 7 sites from six autonomous communities participated and 28 teams won prizes (6 first prizes, 8 second prizes and 14 special mentions).
At the European level of the competition, there were 47 locations over 12 different countries, with 136 teams awarded (44 first prizes, 47 second prizes and 45 special mentions). The first prize winners won 12,000 euros, the second prize winners 6,000 euros and the special mentions an honorary prize.
In total, 391 young architects of 31 different nationalities participated throughout Europe, of which 109 were Spanish.
We must remember the opportunity that this competition represents, both for the young architects participating, in terms of their professional development – just like any project that gives them opportunities and international reach – and for Oliva’s City Council, in terms of finding innovative architectural and urban responses to the new challenges ahead.
The project presented by Oliva was Els Rajolars: Resilient Regeneration, involving the regeneration of the southern edge of the urban centre to improve its connection to the rest of the urban fabric of the town. The area covers 177,398 m². The objective is to transform the run-down area through urban innovation that respects the identity of the place and its environment, establishing a productive fabric within the city, that is adequately connected, and taking into account principles such as economic and environmental sustainability, respect for architectural and engineering heritage, diversification of compatible uses, non-motorised mobility, the appropriate governance of the adopted system, innovation in high-performance vocational training and citizen participation.
This competition commits the city council to the subsequent hiring of the winning team, and so, initially, it proposes the drafting of a Master Plan for Urban Development of the Els Rajolars Zone that addresses the essential issues surrounding the main objective, the manner in which it can be carried out and the possibility of its initial implementation via a flagship project, hence the suggested establishment of a high-performance vocational training centre. Always taking into account the requests of the local society and valuing quick viability and the creation of an economic stimulus for the city.