Al Borde is the winner of Swiss Architectural Award 2024

The Fondazione Teatro dell’architettura is pleased to announce that Al Borde, architecture studio founded in Quito (Ecuador) by Pascual Gangotena, David Barragán, Maríaluisa Borja and Esteban Benavides, is the winner of the BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award 2024.

Al Borde is the winner of the BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award 2024, a biennial international architecture prize promoted since 2018 by the Fondazione Teatro dell’architettura.

The award has always recognised and highlighted architects from all over the world who, with particular sensitivity to ethical, aesthetic and ecological issues, have made a significant contribution to contemporary architectural culture, thereby improving the quality of human life and fostering public and disciplinary debate on the role of architecture in today’s society. The prize is awarded, on a biennial basis, to architects not older than 50 years (in the year in which the Award is launched), without distinction of nationality, who have completed at least three significant works and have made a relevant contribution to contemporary architectural culture.

Also for this edition, the award reconfirms the collaboration between the three Swiss Schools of Architecture USI – Accademia di architettura, Mendrisio; EPFL – ENAC, Section d’Architecture, Lausanne; ETHZ – Departement Architektur.

Thanks to the consolidation of this synergy, the BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award is confirmed as one of the largest and most prestigious architecture prizes, with an advisory board of internationally renowned architects, critics and architectural historians nominating a shortlist of candidates from all over the world.

The BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award, which amounts to CHF 100,000, will be presented to the winner on 8th May 2025 at the Auditorium of the Teatro dell’architettura Mendrisio of the Università della Svizzera italiana. The ceremony will launch the exhibition of the works submitted by the candidates.

Al Borde was chosen from 31 candidates from 17 countries, selected by the committee of advisors, who fully met the expectations of the award promoters and jury.

The jury unanimously conferred the BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award 2024 to Al Borde for the Learning Viewpoint in the Cerro Blanco protected forest, Guayaquil, Ecuador, 2021-2022; the Raw Threshold Pavilion in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, 2022-2023; the Yuyarina Pacha Community Library, Huaticocha, Orellana Province, Ecuador, 2023-2024, with the following motivation:

“The three works presented by Al Borde convinced the jury for multiple reasons. In addition to the collective approach to design and construction, which is also reflected in the involvement of local communities, and the particular attention to climatic aspects, Al Borde’s works manifest a wide and thorough interpretation of the concept of sustainability, because it is rooted in the history of architecture and in a broad spectrum of references ranging from traditional building techniques to modern experimentations. Their research also involves the innovative reinterpretation of local materials, the definition of a contemporary vernacular and the crucial issues at stake locally: themes that Al Borde addresses with singular coherence and radicality.”

The jury of the ninth edition was chaired by Mario Botta and composed of Walter Angonese (Dean of the Accademia di architettura, USI), Sophie Delhay (Director of the Section d’Architecture, EPFL-ENAC), Matthias Kohler (Dean of the Departement Architektur, ETHZ) and Xu Tiantian (winner of the last edition of the award).

The 31 candidates were nominated by a committee of advisor consisting of Manuel Aires Mateus, Lisbon (Portugal); Solano Benitez, Asunción (Paraguay); Giacomo Borella, Milan (Italy); Stéphanie Bru, Paris (France); Angelo Bucci, São Paulo (Brazil); Marianne Burkhalter, Zurich (Switzerland); Antón García-Abril, Madrid (Spain); Sean Godsell, Melbourne (Australia); Shelley McNamara, Dublin (Ireland); Valerio Olgiati, Flims (Switzerland); Martino Pedrozzi, Mendrisio (Switzerland); Adolph Stiller, Vienna (Austria); Elisa Valero, Granada (Spain).