October 03, 2024
Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize Awarded to Ecuador Community Center
The Centro Comunitario Productivo Las Tejedoras (the Community Productivo Center Las Tejedoras), designed by Natura Futura architect José Fernando Gómez and architect Juan Carlos Bamba, won the fifth cycle of the biennial Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize Award for Emerging Practice, which highlights architecture completed in the Americas between 2022 and 2023 from practices that are less than a decade old.
The MCHAP.emerge award includes a research professorship at Illinois Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture, along with $25,000 to support publication.
The Centro Comunitario project, based in Chongón, Ecuador, is a facility for weavers that incorporates traditional building practices and also addresses sustainability and economic empowerment. The structure was designed to meet the needs of a collective of women weavers who lacked a suitable environment to carry out their craft. The architects envisioned a space where artisan identity and aspirations could thrive.
Speaking on behalf of the five-person jury, Jury Chair Maurice Cox said, “The Community Production Center Las Tejedoras is infused with civic presence capable of dignifying the entire community. The project gives formal expression to local crafts and elevates their qualities. The structure, designed for natural ventilation, shade, and cost-efficiency, utilizes indigenous materials in a clean and beautifully assembled manner.”
The award ceremony closed the inaugural Conference on Critical Practice, which brought together authors of the four MCHAP.emerge finalist projects, College of Architecture faculty and students, Cycle 5 jury members, and international guests.
The other finalists of MCHAP.emerge Cycle 5 include:
- Edificio de departamentos en la calle Virrey Avilés (Housing Building on Virrey Avilés Street) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, designed by Juan Campanini-Josefina Sposito
- PILARES Cuicuilco in Cuicuilco, Mexico City, created by TO, +UdeB Arquitectos, AGENdA agencia de arquitectura
- Escuela Inicial 140 en la comunidad de Santa Cruz de Villacuri, Barrio Chino (Elementary School in Santa Cruz de Villacuri Community) in Santa Cruz de Villacuri, Salas, Ica, Peru, created by Estudio Copla and Atelier Ander Bados
Gómez and Bamba join former MCHAP.emerge winners Taller Capital (2022), Rozana Montiel Estudio de Arquitectura (2018), PRODUCTORA (2016), and Pezo von Ellrichshausen (2014).