The Catalunya Construcció Awards claim the sector's commitment to quality
Behind a great work there is a professional who transforms the intangible into tangible. What makes a project "transcend" the plans and become a reality. A diverse, innovative, and highly professionalized fabric of technicians from the construction process that vindicates its role in society with the Catalonia Construction Awards, organized by the Col·legi d’Aparelladors, Arquitectes Tècnics i Enginyers d’Edificació de Barcelona. Prizes that go to the heart of the work to pay tribute to the people and teams that make it possible.
The Clos Pachem Winery in Gratallops, the Castell de Montjuïc works in Barcelona, the Institut de Recerca Mèdica de l'Hospital de Sant Pau, the Teatre l'Artesà del Prat de Llobregat and the new corporate headquarters of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) In Barcelona they have been the five winning reference works of this edition, which has also awarded the professional career of Ezequiel Bellet García, surveyor and health and safety coordinator, in recognition of a lifetime dedicated to safety on site.
Awards that point to the heart of the work to pay tribute to the people and teams that make it possible
In total, 129 works presented in the different professional categories that represent a good sample of the activity carried out in Catalonia during the years 2018 and 2019. “The aim of the awards is to value the art of building, where there is technique and crafts. They also serve to recognize and mark references ”, assesses Celestí Ventura, president of CAATEEB and one of the professionals who best knows the spirit and the raison d'être of the event since its first edition.
The Catalonia Construction Awards offer a concrete look at everything that surrounds the action of building in an excellent way: focusing not on what, but on how. The works are not awarded, but the work of the technicians in their different functions: execution director, project manager, safety coordinator, applied to a reference work, in addition to innovation and intervention projects in existing buildings. Awards that vindicate the role of these technicians and their commitment to society.
UA feature that characterizes these awards is their open nature to all technicians in the sector who can compete in their different categories depending on the role they perform in the construction process. This multidisciplinary character is also manifested in the composition of the jury, which in this way can analyse the candidatures presented with a greater perspective.
A life dedicated to safety
Safety is an aspect that distinguishes the XVII edition from the hand of one of its referents, Ezequiel Bellet, who in the words of the jury “has fought to give the quality of buildings the importance it should have, but also to life of the people who lift them”. The organization has highlighted its contribution to the safety of the building not only from the work, but also from the administration, teaching and outreach.
Something especially relevant if we take into account that security is "an invisible element". "Security does not remain in it, but it is very important." An individual award to Bellet that, however, recognizes the contribution of the sector to safety on site and describes the constant evolution of the needs of society that the technical architect solves and improves in their day to day: “We have the responsibility to ask ourselves what other ways we have to do things better”.
From the use of new materials, the innovation in techniques and processes, the improvement of safety and health, the organization of the work or the protection of the environment. The 22 finalists synthesize a good part of the constructive concerns of the moment and capture that spirit of search. A photo of the sector that "is specified with the winner but that is already described with the finalists". A category, that of being a finalist, that Ventura claims for herself: "They set the level of the profession."
The Catalonia Construction Awards offer a concrete look at everything that surrounds the action of building in an excellent way
Featured Awards
Among the winners, the category of direction of execution of the work stands out in which Carles Bou Bañeras has been awarded by the Clos Pachem Winery in Gratallops (Priorat). In its verdict, the jury highlighted "the perfection in the execution of a project that is highly innovative in terms of brickwork, in a tribute to traditional construction that has been taken to the limit and beyond the values of architecture sustainable".
In the category of integrated project management, the award has been awarded to Lluís Camí Casellas and David Ortega Pittaluga for the works on the Castell de Montjuïc in Barcelona. The jury has valued very positively "the difficult coordination that has been necessary to carry out in a minimally rational way this public work of great public impact, with four different and large and complex interlocutors-promoters".
In the rehabilitation category, the award is subdivided into two areas: heritage rehabilitation and functional rehabilitation. In the first, the award was won by the team formed by Albert Lacasa, Joan Ramon Soldevila, David Ortega, Maria Santiago, Joan Forgas, Dolors Ylla, Manel Bosch, Antoni Sánchez-Fortún and Montserrat Nogués for the rehabilitation and reform of the Teatre l ' Artesà del Prat de Llobregat, valued as "a radical intervention but at the same time has managed to maintain the spirit of the old Artesà."
In this same area, the jury has awarded a special mention to Carles Enrich Giménez and Albert Brufau Cusó for the recovery of the Torre de Merola in Puig-reig (Berguedà). In the field of functional rehabilitation, the award has been given to Enric Batlle, Joan Roig, Albert Gil and Diana Calicó by the new corporate headquarters of Médicos Sin Fronteras in Barcelona, valued by the jury for “the difficulty of converting an industrial building obsolete in a healthy and useful space ”.
In functional rehabilitation, the jury has also awarded a special mention to Eduard Callís Freixas, Guillem Moliner Milhau and Jesús Bassols Geli for Les Terrasses: renovation of a town house in Sant Esteve d'en Bas (Garrotxa). The jury has valued "the extreme sensitivity shown in the project and work, in which it was necessary to solve both an architectural problem and also a family problem. A complex micro-architecture operation approached with skill, with a brilliant result”.
In the category of innovation in construction, the candidacy made up of Felip Pich-Aguilera Baurier and Carles Gelpí i Arroyo won the award from the Institut de Recerca Mèdica de l’Hospital de Sant Pau. A work in which the jury has valued very positively "the innovations introduced in the project with changes in the functional program that promote greater efficiency in the work of research technicians through the opening of workspaces and shared systems".
The 22 finalists synthesize a good part of the constructive concerns of the moment
In the category of health and safety coordination, the award went to the candidacy presented by Jesús Fernández Antolín for his performance in the works of the Teatre de l’Artesà in El Prat de Llobregat. While the award for the final degree project has been awarded to Carla García Pagès for the Art, architecture and construction project at the Flora Albaicín Institute of Flamenco in Barcelona, directed by professors Joaquín Montón and Ana Maria Lacasta of the Higher Polytechnic School Building of Barcelona (EPSEB).
This latest recognition illustrates the commitment of the sector in general and of the Col·legi d’Aparelladors, Arquitectes Tècnics i Enginyers d’Edificació de Barcelona in particular for the transmission of knowledge with younger colleagues and future technical architects and surveyors. "We want university students not only to think about passing, but about going further. Excellence is an attitude that we want to promote through the awards", explains Ventura. A search for improvement that distinguishes the values that guide each professional performance, without which no great project could become a great work.
Multidisciplinary jury
The jury for the XVII edition of the Catalonia Construction Awards is made up of Conxita Balcells, architect; Jan Dinarès, technical architect; Santiago Ayuso, technical architect and security coordinator; Elisabeth Magán, technical architect and production director of Maheco Constructora; David Garcia, doctor architect and structural consultant; Marcos Barjola, technical architect and Celestí Ventura, president of CAATEEB and president of the jury. The awards have the support and collaboration of the Consell de Col·legis d’Aparelladors de Catalunya and Arquinfad.
Delivery of awards
The award ceremony will be held as soon as sanitary conditions allow, in the place and on the date that will be announced in due course. The organization of the event has the support of the companies Constructora del Cardoner, Caixa d'Enginyers and Elecnor.
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