The director of School of Architecture and Building of La Salle-URL (ETSALS), Josep Ferrando, has been recognized with three FAD 2020 Awards. The Barcelona architect, through his studio Josep Ferrando Architecture, has won the International FAD Jury Prize for his project for the Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires, Argentina. For this same work he has also received the International FAD Awards for Opinion, awarded by all the members of ARQUIN-FAD, the entity that organizes the competition.
Ferrando was also recognized with the Prize for Ephemeral Interventions of Opinion with ‘Common Spaces Barcelona Building Construmat’. In this way, the director of ETSALS was the most awarded architect in this FAD Awards year's edition, an event organized by the Decorative Arts Promotion (FAD in Spanish) through ArquinFAD and created in 1958. The FAD Awards are a benchmark in the sector, rewarding the most notable works among architects from the Iberian Peninsula. The two projects by Josep Ferrando recognized by the contest have been co-designed by David Recio, partner of the director of ETSALS.
International FAD Award by the Torcuato Di Tella University
On the new building of the Torcuato Di Tella University, winner of the two international categories, the jury highlighted the “ability to express a lot with very few elements, as well as to solve questions before the program in a classic way with a broader base to encourage contact with public space and raise the volume”. In addition, the jury evaluated other aspects of the proposal: "The clarity of the project's explanation, its urban quality, the ability to communicate and articulate the different uses and scales".
"The idea was to make a building as versatile as possible", explains Josep Ferrando about the new building of the Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires. Located in the River neighborhood of Buenos Aires, and inaugurated in 2019, the proposal suggests an open organization with the purpose of integrating the diversity of the Campus. Thinking about his teaching facet, the director of ETSALS presented the project as an educational possibility: "I wanted to make a building where you could teach with the building, which would serve as a mockup in the classes".
Opinion Award for the BBConstrumat project 2019
On the other hand, on the Common Spaces Barcelona Building Construmat, which won the Prize for the Opinion of Ephemeral Interventions, the jury highlighted that "by opting for recycling and reuse as key concepts, a facility is built which provides the fair with a friendly space capable of isolating the visitor from the murmur of its surroundings". They also refer to the fact that "the dichotomy between the characteristics of the two chosen materials becomes dialectical through the way and arrangement in which they are combined in the space, giving a result that well sums up what was exhibited at the fair".
The circular economy was the basis of the proposal. The facility was built using recyclable materials such as large fabrics and metal beams, so it did not generate waste. Josep Ferrando's commitment to sustainability is in line with some of the main outlines he is introducing in the new ETSALS methodology, and an example of this is the recent investiture as Doctor Honoris Causa of Anne Lacaton by the URL, a reference in social architecture and circular economy.
One of the great acknowledgements of the sector
The FAD Awards, promoted by the architect Oriol Bohigas, are celebrating their 62nd edition this year, and they also decorate the most notable works in Interior Design, City and Landscape and Thought. Their independent nature has made the FAD Awards, over time, the most relevant architectural awards in the Iberian Peninsula, one of the most prestigious in the world and the longest running in Europe. The jury of the FAD International Award this year was formed by Mario Corea, as president, and Miguel Roldán and Jelena Prokopljevic, as members.
