BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award 2024 , Mendrisio/ Schweiz

Press release

BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award 2024

Thursday, May 8, 2025, 6.30 p.m.
Auditorium Teatro dell’architettura Mendrisio

Award ceremony of the winner of BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award 2024
promoted by the Fondazione Teatro dell’architettura:
Al Borde (Ecuador), studio founded by Pascual Gangotena, David Barragán,
Maríaluisa Borja and Esteban Benavides

and

Opening of the BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award 2024 exhibition
promoted by the Academy of Architecture of the Università della Svizzera italiana
from May 9 to October 5, 2025

The Teatro dell'architettura Mendrisio of the Università della Svizzera italiana, is pleased to announce that on May 8, 2025, at 6.30 p.m., the renowned BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award 2024, promoted by the Fondazione Teatro dell’architettura, will be conferred to the winner Al Borde, architecture studio founded in Quito (Ecuador) by Pascual Gangotena, David Barragán, Maríaluisa Borja and Esteban Benavides.
On the same eve the BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award 2024 exhibition, promoted by the Academy of Architecture, Università della Svizzera italiana, will open to the public, from May 9 to October 5, 2025 at the Auditorium of Teatro dell’architettura Mendrisio.

Speakers:

Nicola Guscetti, Member of the Executive Board of BancaStato
Mario Botta, President of the Fondazione Teatro dell’architettura and jury President at BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award
Walter Angonese, Dean of the Academy of Architecture, USI, member of the jury
Moderator: Nicola Navone, Award secretary

During the evening, Pascual Gangotena, David Barragán, Maríaluisa Borja and Esteban Benavides, founding members of the Al Borde studio, winner of the BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award 2024, will give a public lecture on the their work and the context in which it operates, exploring its collective design approach.

The jury of the BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award 2024 - chaired by Mario Botta and composed of Walter Angonese (Dean of the Academy of Architecture, USI), Sophie Delhay (Director of the Section d’Architecture, EPFL-ENAC), Matthias Kohler (Dean of the Departement Architektur, ETHZ) and Xu Tiantian (winner of the last edition of the award) - unanimously conferred the award to Al Borde for the Learning Viewpoint in the Cerro Blanco protected forest, Guayaquil, Ecuador, 2021-2022; the Raw Threshold Pavilion in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, 2022-2023; the Yuyarina Pacha Community Library, Huaticocha, Orellana Province, Ecuador, 2023-2024.

The works presented by Al Borde convinced the jury for several reasons. “In addition to the collective approach to design and construction, which is also reflected in the involvement of local communities, and the particular attention to climatic aspects, Al Borde’s works manifest a wide and thorough interpretation of the concept of sustainability, because it is rooted in the history of architecture and in a broad spectrum of references ranging from traditional building techniques to modern experimentations. Their research also involves the innovative reinterpretation of local materials, the definition of a contemporary vernacular and the crucial issues at stake locally: themes that Al Borde addresses with singular coherence and radicality”.

THE AWARD

Promoted by the Fondazione Teatro dell’architettura, the Swiss Architectural Award – which from this edition enjoys for the first time the support of Banca dello Stato del Cantone Ticino – has always recognised and highlighted architects from all over the world who, with particular sensitivity to ethical, aesthetic and ecological issues, have made a significant contribution to contemporary architectural culture, thereby improving the quality of human life and fostering public and disciplinary debate on the role of architecture in today’s society. The prize is awarded, on a biennial basis, to architects not older than 50 years (in the year in which the Award is launched), without distinction of nationality, who have completed at least three significant works and have made a relevant contribution to contemporary architectural culture.
Also for this edition, the award reconfirms the collaboration between the three Swiss Schools of Architecture: USI – Academy of Architecture, Mendrisio; EPFL – ENAC, Section d’Architecture, Lausanne; ETHZ – Departement Architektur.

Thanks to the consolidation of this synergy, the BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award – which amounts to CHF 100’000.- – is confirmed as one of the largest and most prestigious architecture prizes, with an advisory board of internationally renowned architects, critics and architectural historians nominating a shortlist of candidates from all over the world.

On this occasion, the Fondazione Teatro dell'architettura, in the person of its President Mario Botta, has chosen to associate the award with a work by Swiss artist Flavio Paolucci: “L’uomo crea confini. La natura cammina dentro e fuori dai confini” (2025). With this gesture, the Foundation aims th strengthen it’s connection with Ticino, a land of artists and architects, reaffirming the roots of this prestigious Swiss prize.

Born in 1934 in Torre, Val di Blenio (Switzerland), Flavio Paolucci has developed an expressive language strongly grounded in the relationship between man and landscape, inspired by nature and its cycles, and characterized using organic materials and a poetic fusion of art and environment. After training between Lugano and the Brera Academy in Milan, he made his debut in 1958 and exhibited in numerous European museums. His works are part of prestigious public and private collections. In 2024, the film "Flavio Paolucci. Da Guelmim a Biasca" by Villi Hermann explores the creative world of the artist among nature, memory and poetry.

For more information on all the editions of the Award, please refer to www.swissarchitecturalaward.com.

THE EXHIBITION

From May 9 to October 5, 2025, the BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award 2024 exhibition opens to the public at the Auditorium of the Teatro dell'architettura Mendrisio. The exhibition shows the works, selected for the 2023-2024 edition of the award, of 31 candidates from 17 countries, with a special focus to the winner.

The candidates in the BancaStato Swiss Architectural Award 2024 are: Adamo-Faiden (Sebastian Adamo, Marcelo Faiden, Argentina); Al Borde (Pascual Gangotena, David Barragán, Marialuisa Borja, Esteban Benavides, Ecuador); Assemble (Maria Lisogorskaya, Louis Edward Loft Schulz, Emily Claire Wickham, Mary Jet Anderson, James Donald Morley Binning, Holly Alexandra Briggs, Alice Mary Clare Edgerley, Anthony Thomas Engi Meacock, Irgel Enkhasaikhan, Mark Gavigan, Jane Lisa Issler Hall, Harry Maywood Johnson, Owen Robert Lacey, Matthew Leung, Giles Samuel Peter Smith, Jaymi Sudra, England UK); Atelier Scheidegger Keller (Christian Scheidegger, Jürg Keller, Switzerland); BC architects & studies & materials (Laurens Bekemans, Nicolas Coeckelberghs, Ken De Cooman, Wes Degreef, Belgium); Dunkelschwarz (Michael Höcketstaller, Hannes Sampl, Erhard Steiner, Austria); Gustav Düsing (Germany); EMI Architekt*innen (Elli Mosayebi, Christian Inderbitzin, Ron Edelaar, Switzerland); Carles Enrich (Spain); Lina Ghotmeh (France); GRU.A arquitetos (Caio Calafate, Pedro Varella, Brazil); H+F arquitetos (Pablo Hereñú, Eduardo Ferroni, Brazil); Anna Heringer (Germany); Anne Holtrop (Bahrain); La Cabina de la Curiosidad (Marie Combette, Daniel Moreno Flores, Ecuador); LUO Studio (Luo Yujie, China); Miguel Marcelino (Portugal); Material Cultures (Paloma Gormley, Summer Islam, George Massoud, England UK); Nuno Melo Sousa (Portugal); Michael Murphy (USA); Nomos (Katrien Vertenten, Lucas Camponovo, Ophélie Herranz, Paul Galindo, Switzerland); Carles Oliver Barceló (Spain); RAW Robust Architecture Workshop (Milinda Pathiraja, Ganga Ratnayake, Sri Lanka); Bas Smets (Belgium); SO-IL (Florian Idenburg, Jing Liu, USA); SOL 89 (María Gonzalez, Juanjo López de la Cruz, Spain); SUMA Arquitectura (Elena Orte, Guillermo Sevillano, Spain); VÃO arquitetos (Anna Juni, Enk te Winkel, Gustavo Delonero, Brazil); Suzuko Yamada (Japan); Yashar Yektajo (Mexico).

THE CATALOG

The exhibition is complemented by a monographic volume with a new layout, in English and Italian, published by Mendrisio Academy Press and Silvana Editoriale, edited by Nicola Navone.

THE WINNER

Al Borde is an architecture studio based in Quito (Ecuador), founded in 2007 by David Barragán (1981), Pascual Gangotena (1977), Maríaluisa Borja (1984) and Esteban Benavides (1985), graduates of the School of Architecture, Design and Arts of the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Ecuador.

Al Borde “inhabits the territory of questioning, where certainties about what architecture should or should not be are under constant construction. Their ideas are developed in the making, with greater precision and detail on-site”, because their works are built “with the resources and techniques of the place, where the territory is always a particular and unique variable. The projects become an x-ray of the place, which speaks of the customs of the people, their history, their problems, and their needs”. Al Borde “pursues an architecture whose aesthetics are conscious of the energy expended in its construction. It is seemingly effortless, where the way materials are joined together is clear and logical. An architecture that is open to the active participation of the users in the design and construction process”.

Al Borde has received major awards, including the Donghia Designer-in-Residence 2021-2022 from the Environmental Design Department - Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, the Lafarge Holcim Award Acknowledgment for Latin America 2014, the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture 2013, the Schelling Architecture Prize 2012, the Bicentennial Medal for Cultural Merit from the Ministry of Culture and Heritage of Ecuador 2012. It was also selected as a finalist for Design of the Year 2015 at the Design Museum in London and was listed as one of the top 100 architecture firms in the world by ‘Domus’ magazine in 2019.

Al Borde’s works have been presented in numerous exhibitions and its founding members have been guest lecturers, critics or guest speakers at universities or research institutes in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, including Columbia University in New York, USA; Oregon University, USA; Tongji University in Shanghai, China; and the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine in Paris, France. In 2025, Al Borde was invited to exhibit his work at the 19th. Mostra Internazionale di Architettura - La Biennale di Venezia, with the title Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.

Their works have been widely published and in 2020 the first monograph dedicated to them, Less is All, appeared from the Mexican publisher Arquine.