The Next Generation 1st prize 2014 for Europe went to Hani Jaber, Ricardo Mayor, Héctor Muñoz, and Ignacio Taus of DAT Pangea (Spain) for a series of three socially focused architectural designs, entitled “X Marks the Spot”. Their portfolio of projects included a spatial plan and agricultural restructure, a productive urban garden as well as temporary spaces for public engagement.

The 4th International Holcim Awards – Your Choice voting competition ran from March 16 until May 19, 2015 to find the favorite “Next Generation” sustainable construction projects and received more than 120,000 votes. The Holcim Foundation launched a community voting competition dedicated to the “Next Generation” winning projects that made you the jury. The winning projects were honored at the first ever "Next Generation" Awards Lab – a one-day workshop on sustainable construction for all “Next Generation” prize winners of the regional Holcim Awards 2014. The Lab was held on September 24, 2015 in New York City, USA.

The jury awarded the first prize in the “Next Generation” category for Europe to a group of young architects from Spain who submitted a range of excellent projects planned for Pujaire and Roquetas de Mar in Almería in southeast Spain, and also in Madrid.

The individual entries made it to the last round of jury deliberations and were all deemed exceptional both in terms of content and form. In these unusual circumstances, the prize was conferred to a collection of projects by the group of designers rather than to a single project. Of significance in this regard is the group’s name “Designs for Architectural Territories” (DAT) which is more than a simple designation of an architectural collaborative, but stands for a program of action – where architectural design is a method to raise and potentially solve societal deficiencies.

Read project feature in 4th Holcim Awards 2014/2015 (flip-book)

The winning projects of the Holcim Awards 2014 for Europe illustrate how sustainable construction continues to evolve – developing more sophisticated and multi-disciplinary responses to the challenges facing the building and construction industry. An ecological reserve and remediation project in Southern Italy, a low-cost flexible university building in Paris, and a participatory urban neighborhood in Vienna won gold, silver and bronze.

Project co-author Hector Munoz Mendoza of DAT Pangea notes the importance of considering both the building and its users when developing a design. “X Marks the Spot: Socially-focused architectural design in Spain” won the top prize in the Holcim Awards category for young professionals and students – the project is a dialog between architecture and politics, taking key social problems into consideration.

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The design propositions aim for a dialog between architecture and politics, taking key social problems into consideration while offering appropriate design solutions to address specific issues at hand. The projects tackle, for example, the devastating social conditions of workers in the agricultural sector in the region of Almería in southeast Spain and the lack of public parks in cities and towns throughout the region. Similarly, measures are offered to improve the role of public spaces in neighborhoods in the city of Madrid. Considering the shared spirit of the group, the jury strongly recommends an equal sharing of the prize awarded to the team.