Ninth Edition 2023-2024
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.
The jury unanimously awarded the BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award 2024 to studio 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 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.”.
Learning Viewpoint in the Cerro Blanco protected forest
Guayaquil (Ecuador), 2021-2022
The first intervention of the Cerro Blanco Protected Forest master plan faces the visitors to the forest magnitude. The design promotes the collective experience of being sitting in the front row. The end of the main axis lets the guide or the teacher the best location to address the audience spread in the two lateral wings. With this action, the viewpoint works as an open classroom for the school groups that visit the forest, which represents the largest park visitors.
Being the first project of the plan, the viewpoint works as a prototype that allowed us to understand the whole scope of the technology that we are planning to apply in the architectonic interventions. Common pieces of wood were assembled in a simple way, getting something that is neither common nor simple; the architecture dispenses of final finishes and its primitive form is enough to contain us. The viewpoint wood is not even painted, its darkness is due to a vernacular Japanese method of wood preserving; it burns the surface layer, this mineralizes and protects it from pests that could attack it.
The timber structure that lets landscape contemplation is covered with a canvas impregnated with a cementitious mortar suspended in a tensioned structure. Guayaquil Holcim Innovation Center, researched and developed a hybrid adaptive geometry roof, using a high-strength mortar sprayed on a textile.
Based on bibliographic references, the use of a flexible textile formwork comes from years post World War I, where its first use was organic fabrics for marine engineering and geotechnical applications. With this starting point, multiple tests were carried out in the lab to evaluate fabrics of different compositions, stiffness, and elongation. The main goal was to evaluate the compatibility and adhesion capacity with the cementitious mortar, so, the textile would act as an air-suspended “formwork”. The mortar was technically designed to obtain high initial strengths and fluidity for the projection and the necessary consistency to adhere it and additionally provide low permeability in the hardened state protecting the textile from weathering and UV degradation.
Several prototypes were tested in the lab and on-site to achieve the best mortar projection system and the maximum allowable textile catenary deformation, all of these before the final assembly on the viewpoint.
Through a life cycle analysis, Guayaquil Holcim Innovation Center determines a 68% reduction of the carbon footprint embedded in its materials with respect to a concrete tile roof per square meter.
Raw Threshold Pavilion
Sharjah (United Arab Emirates), 2022-2023
Between the Available and the Biodegradable
In a context where everything is within reach, where anything is possible to acquire from anywhere, and the capitalist development approach has eroded the local identity to the extent of destroying historic neighborhoods, a fundamental question arises: What does it mean to be local?
The Al Qasimiyah school has relinquished its role as a primary school and transformed into one of the venues for the SAT (Sharjah Architecture Triennial). In this shift of purpose, the school evolves from a confined space within a perimeter wall, with a mission to care for children, to aspiring to become an open space that connects with its surroundings and the city. This newfound openness generates fresh ways of occupying the area. The new pedestrian accesses from the North and West converge onto a platform, providing an opportunity to highlight this meeting point and establish a welcoming threshold.
This threshold is defined by a shadow that creates the conditions for inhabiting the exterior. It requires a structure that is possible to build with any available material. However, in a context; where “everything” is “available,” this concept becomes blurry. Considering the economy of effort draws a path to pursue maximum efficiency in transforming raw materials into architectural elements, thus minimizing the energy used in production, processing, and transportation of materials.
The Sharjah Electricity, Water, and Gas Authority (SEWA) has initiated a process of replacing wooden poles with metal ones, which has resulted in a hundred preserved wooden poles stored in their depot. The best ones are selected, damaged ends cut off, and a package of logs of various sizes is obtained, tall enough to assemble a structure from which the shadow suspends.
The shade is created using palm tree mats, a material available in the area. It used in various applications, from the floors of houses to the ceilings of the souks, and even in enclosures. These mats can be easily acquired in any bazaar, offering a variety of types, sizes, shapes, and textures.
This design approach results in a raw and tactile work; crafted with natural materials that allow us to establish an intimate and direct discourse with the place, grounding it on site. The threshold will serve to welcome visitors and, simultaneously, become a way to experience and test the use of this new space, drawing the attention of those who reside and work nearby; inviting them to cross its boundaries.
The project will endure as long as the space requires, providing the flexibility to be assembled and disassembled in other locations. When the time comes to conclude its use, the poles can return to the depot, awaiting a new purpose, while the mats’ versatility may easily find another use. There will come a day when these materials naturally degrade, and the cycle of life will close harmoniously with nature.
Yuyarina Pacha Community Library
Huaticocha, Provincia de Orellana (Ecuador), 2023-2024
Yuyarina Pacha means “Space-Time to Think” in Kichwa. This project is located in the community of Huaticocha, in the buffer zone of the Sumaco Biosphere Reserve, in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In 2019, the Laboratorio Creativo Sarawarmi and Witoca, an agricultural association focused on coffee in the community of Huaticocha started a pilot non-formal education project with local children. What began as a reading club quickly evolved into a space for holistic learning. The library and reading club are more than just a place to look at books; they are a safe space where local children can learn, play and create.
The reading club was a great success. The small space in which it was held needed to become a full-fledged library, and since there was no community meeting space available, it also needed to fulfill that function. These needs led to the final configuration of the project, where the program is divided into three floors: An open ground floor for art and science workshops that involves water, plastics, food, etc., which also serves as a space for informal events for the Association and other spontaneous gatherings; a first floor for activities without water, where the bibliographic collections are housed and children can access the books in an open shelf format; this is one of the Association’s largest spaces, so meetings and other activities are also held there; and a second floor focused on digital languages, where tablets and computers are used to store audio collections of stories aimed at preserving the community’s oral memory; it also houses the magazine collection, which can be enjoyed at a balcony reading table connected to the central void of the first floor.
The main structure of the project is made of Chonta, an Amazonian palm known for its incredible durability and strength. For generations, traditional houses in the region have relied on Chonta for construction, as its structure can be anchored directly into the ground without the need for waterproofing. The architecture embraces the pragmatic value of the region’s ancestral building practices and adapts them to contemporary needs.
In this architecture, millimetric precision is a challenge because the materials are organic and irregular. Therefore, the design takes into account potential variations and adapts to the imperfections of the materials. The thatched roof, characterized by its steep pitch, responds to the region’s rainy climate. For the library, a glass skylight was incorporated into the ridge, which not only provides natural overhead lighting, but also facilitates the construction and maintenance of the project. The ridge of a thatched roof is the most complex part to build and requires the most care and maintenance.
This community project is a commitment to durability and self-management. The appropriation of the site began with a local event even before construction was completed. The Yuyarina Pacha Community Library is not only a space for knowledge, but also a testimony to the ability of rural communities to take charge of their own development, despite being neglected by the state, and to a culture that maintains a more harmonious relationship with the place it inhabits.