Ninth Edition 2023-2024

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Al Borde is an architecture studio based in Quito (Ecuador), founded in 2007 by David Barragán (1981), Pascual Gangotena (1977), Maríaluisa Borja (1984) and Esteban Benavides (1985), graduates of the School of Architecture, Design and Arts of the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Ecuador.

Al Borde “inhabits the territory of questioning, where certainties about what architecture should or should not be are under constant construction. Their ideas are developed in the making, with greater precision and detail on-site”, because their works are built “with the resources and techniques of the place, where the territory is always a particular and unique variable. The projects become an x-ray of the place, which speaks of the customs of the people, their history, their problems, and their needs”. Al Borde “pursues an architecture whose aesthetics are conscious of the energy expended in its construction. It is seemingly effortless, where the way materials are joined together is clear and logical. An architecture that is open to the active participation of the users in the design and construction process”.

Al Borde has received major awards, including the Donghia Designer-in-Residence 2021-2022 from the Environmental Design Department – Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, the Lafarge Holcim Award Acknowledgment for Latin America 2014, the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture 2013, the Schelling Architecture Prize 2012, the Bicentennial Medal for Cultural Merit from the Ministry of Culture and Heritage of Ecuador 2012. It was also selected as a finalist for Design of the Year 2015 at the Design Museum in London and was listed as one of the top 100 architecture firms in the world by ‘Domus’ magazine in 2019.

Al Borde’s works have been presented in numerous exhibitions and its founding members have been guest lecturers, critics or guest speakers at universities or research institutes in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, including Columbia University in New York, USA; the UCAL-Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de América Latina in Lima, Peru; Tongji University in Shanghai, China; and the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine in Paris, France.

Their works have been widely published and in 2020 the first monograph dedicated to them, Less is All, appeared from the Mexican publisher Arquine.