Monapart sponsors the First José Luis Echeverría Projects Prize
José Luis Echevarría, founding partner of Monapart, is chairing the first José Luis Echeverría Project Award, an architectural project competition among students of Project Fundamentals at the La Salle School of Architecture.
On 26 November last I had the pleasure of chairing the 1st José Luis Echeverría Project Award: unofficial, provisional title, post-mortem and I wish that condemned to extinction, from an architectural project competition among the students of Project Fundamentals of the La Salle School of Architecture.
If I put aside the racy and emotional aspects for a moment, I must assure you that it is a serious venture (we all considered it as such: students, professors, myself...) with top-quality proposals among the finalist projects, selected from the quarterly work of over 120 second-year students.
For the selection of the two finalist teams and the winning team for each of the four project categories (kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living room), the judging panel rewarded proposals in which (1) rigor (conceptual, geometric, graphic), (2) critical thinking, and (3) the capacity to respond to the challenges of contemporary society were most present and clearly articulated.
The awarded projects represent excellent exercises in two or more of these selection criteria, almost always oscillating between riskier, more visionary proposals and others with a rigor and craftsmanship rarely seen in these early career stages.
At the end of the day, the awards ceremony and expressions of gratitude featured various forms of stand-up comedy academic and a gift exchange where, in strict reverse logic, the winning teams received bottles of Hendrick’s Gin, and the chair of the judging panel, among other gifts, a Monopoly set.
Thanks from here to Pau, Sergi, Pere G., Pere B., Jordi C., Jordi Q., Aleix and Alfons (that's all the teaching staff this year) for giving me this opportunity to return to the classrooms and have so much fun... I won't lie to you if I tell you that I hope it gets repeated year after year, with another name, with other students, but always with you.
