Site Visitor Center _ Évora, Portugal

an international architecture competition (October 07, 2015 - February 26, 2016)

On behalf of ArkxSite, we would like to congratulate the following winners and honorable mentions for their compelling competition submissions!
The results are composed of (5) teams of young professional architects and (5) teams of architecture students!

A special thank you to the Jury members for their expertise, valuable time and dedication throughout the evaluation period!

Alessandro Tessari and Matteo Bandiera (Spain / Italy) _ ETB
Lapo Ruffi (Italy) _ Lapo Ruffi
Rubén Alcolea and Jorge Tárrago (Spain) _ Alcolea+Tárrago

Thank you to all of the participants for submitting your ideas, enjoy browsing through the diverse design proposals!

Download Jury Evaluation Report

WINNERS:

1ST PRIZE

VC15007: Jorge Ruiz Boluda (SPAIN)

Jury remarks:
The project joins the environment with naturalness and discretion, building an effective visual and material tension with the archaeological site and with the broader scenery of the surrounding landscape. The tower scheme, while presenting some functional limits, solves brilliantly the exhibition program assuming the role of landmark.

The project has the ability to find the right distance from history, generating a new landmark, as a new eye to look towards the extended landscape. The simplicity of architecture manifests a poetic materiality, such as to search affinity and respect with the place, able to engage in a fruitful dialogue with the megalithic monument, and to evoke an hidden time.

The proposal minimizes the impact on the territory creating a powerful element in height. What 'a priori' seems a paradox, results in extreme elegance and efficacy. Time and erosion on compacted earth will link together centuries of history. Congratulations!

2ND PRIZE

VC15156 Ardy Hartono Kurniawan, Adwitya Dimas Satria (INDONESIA)

Jury remarks:
The project solved with simplicity and immediacy the functional program, proposing a system at the same time rigorous and light, capable of triggering an interesting visual relationship with the archeological site and the landscape. The transparency of the volume, the strict seriality of the structural system and the clear geometry of the map imprint clarity to the proposal.

The project evokes a great sense of grace and serenity, proposing a remarkable functional and planimetric clarity, in an attempt to create a disappearing architecture in the landscape through a poetic language and a spatial continuity. Nevertheless the proposal reveals a delicate position into the site, able to alter the millennial relationship between history and nature.

Although trying to disappear has been a constant in many of the proposals, this project, unlike many others that consider hiding underground, relies on the ability of architecture to achieve that goal. Nevertheless, the constructive solution still remains unsolved and is the main challenge for transforming air into a constructive material, perhaps the most precious one. Congratulations!

3RD PRIZE

VC15079 Giacomo Nuesslein, Benedict Esche (GERMANY)

Jury remarks:
The project starts from the reworked version of a series of refined suggestions related to the Neolithic world. The conformation of the proposal, clear and effective in its planimetric scheme and section, allows an interesting and balanced dialogue between archeology and the intervention, giving to the complex new tension and vigor.

The project offers a cultured and refined vision, through an intense architecture by evocative atmospheres, appearing as a place of great quietness and meditation. At the same time the proposal, although the appropriateness of materials, opts for an excessively close position to the megalithic monument , creating a critical relationship between the new elements and the historical heritage.

This is an extremely subtle and beautiful proposal, both in its topographical implementation and its geometry traces, which perhaps becomes a little rhetoric with some of the syntactical pillars. Its surrealistic nuances in its definition achieves a unique and magical, tellurian atmosphere.
Congratulations!

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

VC15132 Elena Aleksandrov, Leonardo Remuzzi, Luca Tognù (ITALY)
VC15103 Luca Cosmi, Carlo Catini, David Cirocchi, Plinio Vanni (ITALY)
VC15034 Ricardo Martínez García, Eduardo Bravo Alonso, Ángel Martín Gil (SPAIN)
VC15045 Duarte Miranda, Pedro Lima (PORTUGAL)
VC15094 Miha Rijavec (SLOVENIA)
VC15100 Elena Romero Fernández, Rafael Carlos Gutiérrez Moreno, Marcello Licitra (SPAIN)
VC15164 Aisha Prisamahyati, Christopher Bonauli, Ihvan Pahrevy (INDONESIA)

Congratulations!

ALL REMAINING COMPETITION ENTRIES:

OVERVIEW:

This international one-stage architecture competition invites all architecture students, young architects and young professionals with a degree in architecture studies (≤ 40 years old) to develop and submit compelling ideas for the design of a contemporary Visitor Center located near the megalithic monument Cromeleque dos Almendres (stone circle) in the town of Guadalupe, in the region of Évora, Portugal.

The megalithic monument Cromeleque dos Almendres is a significant landmark on a prominent landscape, a place of great cultural heritage and historical significance with characteristics that must be fully preserved.

When generating a vision for an intervention located within such a spectacular place, it is essential that each proposal emphasizes, respects and celebrates the site, while providing visitors with a unique experience.

JURY:

Alessandro Tessari and Matteo Bandiera (Spain / Italy) _ ETB
Lapo Ruffi (Italy) _ Lapo Ruffi
Rubén Alcolea and Jorge Tárrago (Spain) _ Alcolea+Tárrago

MEDIA PARTNERS + SUPPORT:

Architime _ Russia

Arqoo _ Italy

.bak _ Spain

Blog de Concursos _ Spain

Competitionline _ Germany

Shapedscape _ Canada

Wettbewerbe Aktuell _ Germany

World Architecture Community _ United Kingdom

IN THE NEWS:

NOTE:

This is strictly an ideas competition, an academic exercise and will not be built. ArkxSite or any other organisations do not have the authority nor intention to award contracts for design services as a result of this competition. Awarded proposals should consider their award as recognition of excellent work in this competition.

Site Visitor Center _ Winners!