Architects from Paraguay and Mexico have been declared winner and highly commended for the Moira Gemmill Prize, and this year’s UK-based winner of the MJ Long Prize has been revealed
Viviana Pozzoli, co-founder of Equipo de Arquitectura based in Paraguay, has been declared the winner of the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture, while Loreta Castro Reguera, co-founder of Taller Capital based in Mexico, has been highly commended, and Kirsten Gabriëls Webb of Sergison Bates has won the MJ Long Prize for Excellence in Practice.
Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture 2023
The work of this year’s winner, Viviana Pozzoli, navigates the social, ecological and economic challenges of the context in which Equipo de Arquitectura practises, to create buildings rooted in their place. The studio, founded by Pozzoli and Horacio Cherniavsky in 2017, is particularly interested in the use of raw earth as construction material, as shown in the early childhood centre in Villeta and the Intermediate House in Asunción.
The Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture, named after the director of design at the V&A and latterly director of capital programmes at the Royal Collection Trust who died suddenly in 2015, recognises a bright future for designers under the age of 45 who are leading their own practices.
Equipo de Arquitectura’s early childhood centre in Villeta, Paraguay
Credit: Federico Cairoli
‘There is something very true and honest about the work Pozzoli is making,’ the judges noted, ‘responding to the local climate and context, and with an impressive emphasis on daylight and air.’ They celebrated that the technologies that the practice is developing can be used by local communities without their input. ‘It is a complete architecture,’ they concluded, ‘encompassing ecology, materiality and research.’
Pozzoli is joined by Loreta Castro Reguera, who was highly commended by the judges. Founded by Castro Reguera and Pablo Ambrosi in 2010, Taller Capital’s public work is informed by Castro Reguera’s research into Mexico’s water systems. The practice has a growing portfolio of public space projects, including Parque Xicoténcatl in Tijuana and Parque Bicentenario in Ecatepec on the periphery of Mexico City.
Taller Capital’s Parque Xicoténcatl in Tijuana, Mexico
Credit: Gabriel Felix
The judges acknowledged that ‘water is a huge challenge in all parts of the world’, and that Castro Reguera ‘has combined water systems with their social agenda’. They commented that ‘a mix of architecture, advocacy and community engagement has resulted in a substantial and research-driven body of work.’ Taller Capital ‘utilise radical pragmatism to create useful resources for local people, which takes enormous courage.’
MJ Long Prize for Excellence in Practice 2023
Kirsten Gabriëls Webb, associate at Sergison Bates, has been awarded this year’s prize for her work on De Korenbloem sheltered housing in Kortrijk, Belgium. The project for a care home for residents with young onset dementia includes the restoration of an art-deco villa, as well as the construction of a new building which includes residential units. The building primarily attends to the experiences and well-being of its residents.
The MJ Long Prize for Excellence in Practice – named in memory of inspirational architect MJ Long – awards an architect excelling in practice in the United Kingdom.
Sergison Bates’ De Korenbloem sheltered housing
Credit: Stefan Müller
The judging panel commended the way that De Korenbloem ‘stitches residents’ lives back into the town’, adding that ‘it is an architecture that brokers new territory, casting aside preconceptions in the process of the design.’ They commented that: ‘“architecture can save lives” is one of those phrases you hear bandied about and is usually complete rubbish but here it really has.’ Gabriëls Webb’s work ‘challenges our expectations of what built architecture can be and the process by which we achieve it: there is something so important in the work she is doing.’
The full Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture shortlist comprises:
- Highly commended: Loreta Castro Reguera, co-founder of Taller Capital, based in Mexico
- Alessandra Covini, partner at Studio Ossidiana, based in the Netherlands
- Dominique Petit-Frère, co-founder of Limbo Accra, based in Ghana and the US
- Winner: Viviana Pozzoli, co-founder of Equipo de Arquitectura, based in Paraguay
While the MJ Long Prize for Excellence in Practice shortlist comprises:
- Jennifer Dyne of David Kohn Architects, for Cowshed in Devon, United Kingdom
- Winner: Kirsten Gabriëls Webb of Sergison Bates, for De Korenbloem sheltered housing in Kortrijk, Belgium
- Imogen Softley Pierce of Hugh Broughton Architects, for Clifford’s Tower in York, United Kingdom
- Amy Waite of Mikhail Riches, for Park Hill Phase 2 in Sheffield, United Kingdom
All shortlisted projects and practices have been published in the AR March 2023 issue, available to purchase now
Previous winners of the Moira Gemmill Prize include: Swati Janu, founder of Social Design Collaborative (2022); Ariadna Artigas, Anna Clemente, Eulàlia Daví, Cristina Gamboa, Laura Lluch and Núria Vila, members of Lacol (2021); Francesca Torzo, winner, and Mariam Kamara, highly commended (2020); Xu Tiantian, founder of DnA (2019); Gloria Cabral, partner at Gabinete de Arquitectura (2018); Rozana Montiel (2017); Gabriela Etchegaray, co-founder of Ambrosi Etchegaray (2016); vPPR founders Tatiana von Preussen, Catherine Pease and Jessica Reynolds (2015); sole practitioner Julia King (2014); Spanish architect Olga Felip (2013); and John McAslan + Partners’ Hannah Lawson (2012).
Founded in 2020, previous winners of the MJ Long Prize include: Fiona Monkman of Islington Architects, for Centurion Close in London (2022); Alice Brownfield of Peter Barber Architects, for Kiln Place in London (2021); and Tracy Meller of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, for Centre Building at the LSE, London (2020).
The W Awards are sponsored by Roca.
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