With a project titled ‘La casa por el tejado,’ the Bizcay firm AZAB – established in 2018 by Cristina Acha, Miguel Zaballa, Ane Arce, and Iñigo Berasategui – won the competition for the commission to build four subsidized apartment buildings taking up entire urban blocks – with commercial spaces and parking garages – within the historical core of the city of Badajoz. The second and third prizes went to Paredes Pedrosa and Daniel Jiménez + Jaime Olivera, respectively. The jury – on which sat Sara de Giles, Blanca Lleó, Beatriz Matos, among others – praised the winning design’s “implantation on a very complex topography, its efficient insertion into the urban and monumental fabric, introducing transversal paths that ensure permeability towards the public space.” Seeking a solution of continuity with the existing residential scheme, the compact blocks repeat the apartment module around the courtyards, reproduce the surrounding residential typology, and have heterogeneous, bent, discontinuous roofs that help to integrate them into the neighborhood. 

Kontextur is a digital magazine spinning around architecturebased in Berlin and Leipzig.

In accordance with the calendar and procedure for the call for tenders established through the collaboration agreement between BBK, the patron of honour, and the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum for the selection of the extension and renovation project for the museum, the first phase for the registration and pre-selection of finalists has ended, in which 57 teams were admitted.

In a meeting today, the evaluation committee has selected the six finalist teams that now pass through to the second phase for the submission of bids:

• Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos S.L.P. 
• Rafael Moneo
• (Joint Venture) Foster + Partners Ltd. + LM Uriarte Arkitektura S.L.P.
• (Joint Venture) BIG, AZAB, Proskene
• (Joint Venture) SNOHETTA + FORASTER ARQUITECTOS
• (Joint Venture) SANAA Jimusho Ltd. + I. Aurrekoetxea & Bazkideak