Fourth Edition 2013-2014

José María Sánchez García is the winner of the fourth BSI Swiss Architectural Award. This international award is sponsored by the BSI Architectural Foundation, under the aegis of the Swiss Federal Office for Culture in Bern and the Mendrisio Architecture Academy (Università della Svizzera Italiana), and in cooperation with the Archivio del Moderno in Mendrisio.

The prize, which totals CHF 100,000 – making the BSI Swiss Architectural Award one of the most lucrative architecture prizes in the world today – was presented to the winner on 18 September 2014 at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, Switzerland at a ceremony that has also marked the launch of the exhibition of works submitted by the candidates.

This is the fourth BSI Swiss Architectural Award, which is presented every two years and aims to draw the public’s attention to architects not older than 50 from all over the world whose work contributes to contemporary architectural theory and practice and who have shown particular sensitivity to landscape and the environmental context.

The 2014 winner, José María Sánchez García, was selected among 27 candidates coming from 16 different countries.

The jury has unanimously awarded the BSI Swiss Architectural Award 2014 to José María Sánchez García for: the Environment of the Diana Temple in Mérida (Spain, 2005-2008); the Sports Innovation Centre “el Anillo”, Guijo de Granadilla, Cáceres (Spain, 2008-2009); the Rowing Centre in Alange (Spain, 2008-2010).

In the words of Mario Botta, president of the BSI Swiss Architectural Award Jury, the works presented by José María Sánchez García “testify to the maturity of an architect, not yet forty, capable of tackling, with equal rigor and precision, widely different programs and contexts, ranging from restoration of the archaeological heritage in the urban fabric to the installation of sports facilities in an attractive landscape. His projects are well-measured and powerful at the same time, devoid of formal complacency. He is able to give order and shape to a location while highlighting its specific features. The formal reduction achieved by the architect is accompanied by great sensitivity in the interpretation of the site, with which he establishes a fruitful dialogue. He has won this award among very strong competition coming from a wide range of contexts and styles, which serves to confirm the validity of the selection procedure, based on the nominations provided by the advisors, and the truly international character of this award.”

The jury of the fourth BSI Swiss Architectural Award was chaired by Mario Botta (Switzerland) and included Alberto Campo Baeza (Spain), Marc Collomb (Switzerland, director of the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio), Charles Kleiber (Switzerland, chairman of the BSI Architectural Foundation) and Bruno Reichlin (Switzerland) as members. The secretary of the BSI Swiss Architectural Award is Nicola Navone (Switzerland).

The candidates of the 2014 BSI Swiss Architectural Award were nominated by a committee of advisors comprised of internationally renowned architects and critics including Solano Benitez (Paraguay – winner of the first BSI Swiss Architectural Award), Barry Bergdoll (USA), Ole Bouman (Netherlands), Luis Fernández-Galiano (Spain), Sean Godsell (Australia), Diébédo Francis Kéré (Burkina Faso / Germany – winner of the second BSI Swiss Architectural Award), Shelley McNamara (Ireland), Rahul Mehrotra (India), Mohsen Mostafavi (USA), Valerio Olgiati (Switzerland): a highly representative group further enriched by two recent winners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, Toyo Ito (Japan) and Eduardo Souto de Moura (Portugal).

The candidates for the 2014 BSI Swiss Architectural Award were: Boyd Cody Architects (Ireland), Arno Brandlhuber (Germany), Tom de Paor (Ireland), Anne Feenstra / Office Arch i platform (Netherlands / India), Toni Gironès (Spain), Hall McKnight (Northern Ireland) Go Hasegawa (Japan), Akihisa Hirata (Japan), Hollmén, Reuter, Sandman (Finland), Höweler + Yoon Architecture (USA), Kumiko Inui (Japan), johnstonmarklee (USA), Carla Juaçaba (Brazil), LTL ARCHITECTS (USA), MAP Studio – Magnani Pelzel Architetti Associati (Italy), onishimaki + hyakudayuki architects (Japan), Lassila Hirvilammi Architects / OOPEAA – Office for Peripheral Architecture (Finland), Sameep Padora (India), Smiljan Radic (Chile), Camilo Restrepo Ochoa (Colombia), Rintala Eggertsson Architects (Norway), Mauricio Rocha (Mexico), José María Sánchez García (Spain), Sergison Bates Architects (England), Studio Weave (England), TYIN tegnestue Architects (Norway), Raphael Zuber (Switzerland).