Ninth Edition 2023-2024

Al Borde, architectural practice founded in Quito (Ecuador) by Pascual Gangotena, David Barragán, Maríaluisa Borja and Esteban Benavides, is the winner of the ninth edition of the Swiss Architectural Award, a biennial international architecture prize.

Promoted since 2018 by the Fondazione Teatro dell’architettura, from this edition the Award is supported by Banca dello Stato del Cantone Ticino and therefore is now named the BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award.

Also for this edition, the Award reconfirms the collaboration of the three Swiss Schools of Architecture: USI – Accademia di architettura, Mendrisio; EPFL – ENAC, Section d’Architecture, Lausanne; ETHZ – Departement Architektur, Zurich, represented in the jury, chaired by architect Mario Botta, by their deans/directors, Walter Angonese, Sophie Delhay and Matthias Kohler. The Award benefits from the organizational and operative support of the Università della Svizzera italiana – Accademia di architettura.

Thanks to the consolidation of this synergy, the BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award is confirmed as one of the best endowed and most prestigious architecture prizes in the world, by virtue of a committee of advisors composed of architects, critics and architecture historians of international renown who intercept at different latitudes a shortlist of candidates to be submitted to the jury chaired by Mario Botta.

Since its inception, the Award aims to promote a kind of architecture that is sensitive to contemporary ethical, aesthetic and ecological issues and can facilitate public and disciplinary debate. 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 offered a relevant contribution to contemporary architectural culture.

The BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award, which amounts to CHF 100,000, will be presented to the winner on … May 2025 at the Auditorium of the Teatro dell’architettura Mendrisio, 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) and the Yuyarina Pacha Community Library in Huaticocha, Provincia de Orellana, Ecuador (2023-2024), with the following reasons:

“The three works presented by Al Borde, an Ecuadorean studio founded by Pascual Gangotena, David Barragán, Maríaluisa Borja and Esteban Benavides (Learning Viewpoint in the Cerro Blanco Protected Forest, Guayaquil, Ecuador, 2021-2022; Raw Threshold Pavilion, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, 2022-2023; Yuyarina Pacha Community Library, Huaticocha, Provincia de Orellana, Ecuador, 2023-2024), 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, USI-Accademia di architettura), Sophie Delhay (director, Section d’Architecture EPFL-ENAC), Matthias Kohler (dean, ETHZ-Departement Architektur) and Xu Tiantian (winner of the last edition of the Award).

The candidates for the eighth edition 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).

The candidates in the BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award 2024: Adamo-Faiden (Sebastian Adamo, Marcelo Faiden, Argentina); Al Borde (Pascual Gangotena, David Barragán, Marialuisa Borja, Esteban Benavides, Ecuador); Assemble (Maria Lisogorskaya, Louis Edward Loft Schulz, Emily Claire Wickham, Mary Jet Anderson, James Donald Morley Binning, Holly Alexandra Briggs, Alice Mary Clare Edgerley, Anthony Thomas Engi Meacock, Irgel Enkhasaikhan, Mark Gavigan, Jane Lisa Issler Hall, Harry Maywood Johnson, Owen Robert Lacey, Matthew Leung, Giles Samuel Peter Smith, Jaymi Sudra, England UK); Atelier Scheidegger Keller (Christian Scheidegger, Jürg Keller, Switzerland); BC architects & studies & materials (Laurens Bekemans, Nicolas Coeckelberghs, Ken De Cooman, Wes Degreef, Belgium); Dunkelschwarz (Michael Höcketstaller, Hannes Sampl, Erhard Steiner, Austria); Gustav Düsing (Germany); EMI Architekt*innen (Elli Mosayebi, Christian Inderbitzin, Ron Edelaar, Switzerland); Carles Enrich (Spain); Lina Ghotmeh (France); GRU.A arquitetos (Caio Calafate, Pedro Varella, Brazil); H+F arquitetos (Pablo Hereñú, Eduardo Ferroni, Brazil); Anna Heringer (Germany); Anne Holtrop (Bahrain); La Cabina De La Curiosidad (Marie Combette, Daniel Moreno Flores, Ecuador); LUO Studio (Luo Yujie, China); Miguel Marcelino (Portugal); Material Cultures (Paloma Gormley, Summer Islam, George Massoud, England UK); Nuno Melo Sousa (Portugal); Michael Murphy (USA); Nomos (Katrien Vertenten, Lucas Camponovo, Ophélie Herranz, Paul Galindo, Switzerland); Carles Oliver Barceló (Spain); RAW Robust Architecture Workshop (Milinda Pathiraja, Ganga Ratnayake, Sri Lanka); Bas Smets (Belgium); SO-IL (Florian Idenburg, Jing Liu, USA); SOL 89 (María Gonzalez, Juanjo López de la Cruz, Spain); SUMA Arquitectura (Elena Orte, Guillermo Sevillano, Spain); VÃO arquitetos (Anna Juni, Enk te Winkel, Gustavo Delonero, Brazil); Suzuko Yamada (Japan); Yashar Yektajo (Mexico).

Portrait of Al Borde: © Photo by JAG Studio