Arquipélago – Contemporary Arts Centre distinguished in the XII SECIL Prize of Architecture
The Arquipélago – Contemporary Arts Centre, in Ribeira Grande, and the Corporate Headquarters of EDP, in Lisbon, were the two winners of the XII Secil Prize of Architecture, which aims to distinguish ‘the excelence in national architecture’, being awarded since 1992.
Among the 12 nominations with ‘exemplary quality architecture’, five architects responsible for the two projects were distinguished, them being Manuel Aires Mateus and Francisco Aires Mateus, authors of the architectural project of EDP’s headquarters, and Francisco Vieira de Campos, Cristina Guedes and João Mendes Ribeiro, authors of the architectural project, Arquipélago – Contemporary Arts Centre, highlighting the five awarded architects with the Secil Prize of Architecture, complementing the fact that they are ‘surprising spaces of collective life, accordingly with the environments in which they are placed.’
‘The architecture of each of these works remarkably matches its own circumstances, both paying great attention to the framework and saving or recreating the best they could find there: the remains of an old alcohol factory, in the case of Arquipélago, and the memory of chasms and the transversal relationship between the city and the river, in the case of EDP’, marks a release from the jury of the contest, highlighting that ‘intrecate programs and sophisticated structural systems or complex construction and rehabilitation processes look simple.’