The Félix Candela Award is a two-phase international architectural ideas competition in Spanish. It is convened annually by the Instituto Español de Arquitectura (IESARQ) and is aimed at all students of architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning and design, as well as young architects, landscape architects, urban planners and designers, individually or in teams of two or up to three members.
The seventh edition of the Felix Candela Award proposes, in the context of an ultra-materialistic society dominated by the ego (which creates duality and provokes confrontation), the need to overcome local consciousness and cross the threshold of supra-consciousness through meditation in the spiritual place of an architecture that serves the encounter of man with the true meaning of Life.
Architecture, whether in its collective form “the city” or in its private form “the house”, as a science of art, as art or knowledge of knowledge, is the container or resonator of human life, body and consciousness. We are energy: stardust that disintegrated materially millions of years ago and we are part of a whole with the universe, a perfect system, designed to function with precision. And architecture must provide us with the possibility to change frequency and make us vibrate with such a universal condition.
In this way the only and true function of architecture is not to contain our body like a box to its shoes (from which they cannot get out if we do not help them) but to acrisolate our dreams, to make us vibrate and amplify our frequency, thus accompanying us on our path of learning to reach supra-consciousness. Architects like artists, through their works, have always strived to help show others the expression of the inherent perfection of our being in nature, an expression that honored the life of each human being as unique, inserted in a perfectly designed system. Today, however, it seems that we are not driven by this sense of existence but by a purely material one, where beauty and truth have disappeared as the driving forces of our passage through the world and have been replaced by taste and opinion, the fundamental tools of an existence dominated by the ego. The false prophets of material consciousness and contemporary nihilisms have limited these aspirations of the architect so that we are satisfied with being mere problem solvers of an existence conditioned by the finiteness of matter: to have more and now, to accumulate, or not to have, and to accept in this finite material destiny a condition of existential precariousness, of material finiteness.
The growth of our cities reflects this present way of relating to the world, manifesting a society without sense of a time without spirit. What is the main cause of this disorder, of this lack of sense, of this time without spirit: ignorance, an extreme affection for the material, fear as an expression of the ego and ultimately selfishness.
The word Babel has a double meaning: on the one hand, if we refer to its Assyrian origin Bab-ilu means “gate of God”; in its Hebrew origin בָּבֶל, in turn related to the Hebrew verb balal, means disorder or confusion. In such a way the city, as the maximum realization of human intelligence has swung between one meaning and the other: today the pendulum is on the second.
The participant of the seventh edition of the Félix Candela Award will have to start, in the first instance, from a personal position on the subject raised to then place himself in a specific urban context in which to build a spiritual place that serves the encounter of the person with himself through others and that, celebrating the differences between some people and others -therefore a place of ecumenical encounter-, allows him to recognize himself as humanity, to leave behind his ego to get a glimpse of the true meaning of his existence through meditation or any other exercise of individual spirituality and in community.
Postcriptum. It is likely that the best approach to face an exercise such as this one, in which it is proposed to dream of an ecumenical meeting place where man can reach, in the chaos of contemporary life, a higher consciousness, requires first of all the participants to face, along with the development of their project, this same path of personal introspection, of inner depth through some form of spiritual exercise “ora et labora”, which they will be proposing to others through their proposal. The architect can heal, as the doctor heals first with the word, with the management of space through matter and its energy, in such a way that the final expression of the proposal may come from multiple tests working manually with matter and light, sounds, aromas, taste, touch... Ora et labora: to break the images and imagine, to do more to say what is just and necessary, to aspire and renounce…
PROJECT
The participants of the seventh edition of the Félix Candela Award will have to devise a spiritual place located somewhere in the city of their choice, in such a dreamlike way that allows the person, in their experience and through any form of spiritual rituality, to meet with themselves and others to reach a higher level of consciousness.
There is no restriction as to the characteristics of the architectural type and the consequent specific proposal for the poetic definition of the spiritual place for which these bases ask. The participant will have to debate between the knowledge he/she believes he/she possesses and the curiosity aroused by the question he/she is asked to develop his/her proposal, being the previous disjunctive the only basic restriction.
There are no dimensional limitations for the proposal submitted by the contestants, however, the scale must correspond to the character of a place that moves and excites, so it is irrelevant to talk about the dimensions of the Pantheon in Rome, the Cathedral of Cordoba or Las Capuchinas by Luis Barragan.
No se dan limitaciones dimensionales para la propuesta que planteen los concursantes, sin embargo, la escala deberá corresponder al carácter de un lugar que conmueva y emocione, de tal manera, es irrelevante hablar de las dimensiones del Panteón de Roma, la Catedral de Córdoba o Las Capuchinas de Luis Barragán.
As for the general program, it will correspond to the type of a meeting place for the practice of any kind of exercise of spirituality, worship or creed in such a way that it has an ecumenical character, allowing the coexistence of the above independently, simultaneously or in communion. The participants have total freedom to develop the specific program according to their concept.
The level of definition of the proposal, in all its aspects, will be a preliminary project, to such a degree that it allows to imagine the spatial experience that the person would live, that is to say, at a poetic level.
During the first phase of the competition the way to tell the story of your proposal will be through a total of 2 panels in Din-A1 format. The participant has total freedom of techniques and expressive tools to tell his project with precision, according to his idea, within the established format.
The jury will also value the originality of the proposal and its congruence with the theme as well as the relationship between the theme, the concept, the implementation, its materiality and its precise representation.
A brief report, of no more than 300 words in total, may be included in the films as an instructive.
First phase
The finalists whose proposals are selected will go on to a second phase where they will take an intensive project workshop to opt for the “FÉLIX CANDELA” Award. The theme and scope of the workshop will be communicated to the Finalists at the time of the decision of this first phase.
Second phase
The finalists will participate in the intensive project workshop, forming a team with one of the architects of recognized trajectory considered by IESARQ for the best use of the same. Derived from the work of the workshop, each of the finalists will present the final result to the jury to opt for the “FÉLIX CANDELA” Award.
Language
The language of the contest is Spanish. Therefore, any text on the panels must be translated into Spanish in case this is not the participants' mother tongue.
INQUIRIES
All questions regarding registration, registration number or any issue related to fees, payments or money transfers will be answered during the registration period at the e-mail address secretaria@premiofelixcandela.mx
SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL
The reception of the proposals will be done digitally, to the following address: secretaria@premiofelixcandela.mx
A ZIP or RAR file will be sent with the name of the registration number (for example: FC1234.zip) which will include the JPG images corresponding to the panels and the documentation that accredits the legal participation of the contestants. The deadline for submitting proposals will be May 19, 2025 at 23:59 hours in CDMX (Central American Time (CET) = UTC/GMT - 6:00).
DOCUMENTATION TO BE SUBMITTED
It will consist of the delivery of 2 digital panels in JPG format with the following characteristics:
These panels shall include all the graphic and written information necessary, in the opinion of the participants, for the adequate definition of the proposal. The resolution of the panels, as well as the size of the texts that may be printed on DIN A1 size paper (59.4 X 84.0 cm) in vertical format, should be considered. The reading of the panels will be, therefore, vertical, but it is left to the discretion of the participants to take the panels as a single panel of length the sum of the short dimension of the panel vertically, for the purpose of the composition of the content in the same. Taking these parameters into account, the minimum font size for the texts included in the panels should be 10 points. The text to be included in the panels shall not exceed 300 words in any case, in Spanish, not counting labels. Any technique or form of graphic expression that clearly and precisely explains the proposal will be accepted. No documentation other than that mentioned above may be submitted. No mark, logo, insignia or any element that may identify the author, except the registration number, may be included. The registration number must appear in the lower right corner of each panel.
PARTICIPANTS
All students of architecture, design and urban planning who belong to any academic institution and/or university where design, architecture and urban planning studies are taught may participate in this competition, either individually or in teams of a maximum of 3 people.
The competition is open to all young architects up to the age of 40 years old at the closing date for registration. The representative of each team must be an architect or student of architecture in general or specialising in one of its areas and may team up with other professionals or students from related areas such as design, civil engineering, urban planning, etc. Likewise, philosophers, theologians, theologians, physicists, historians, doctors, anthropologists, political scientists or any other relevant profile in relation to the specific theme of this edition may participate in a team with any of the above, and in any case, at the discretion of the participant who appears as the head or representative of each team.
The above conditions must be accredited by each of the participants by means of a copy of an official identification that accredits place of birth and/or residence; as well as, by a copy of the document that certifies age and student status or professional degree, if applicable. Only one entry may be submitted per registration. Each entrant or participating team may submit only one project, which will be assigned a REGISTRATION NUMBER. Under no circumstances may any member of a team be part of a different team. No member of the jury, regular collaborating partners, employees or relatives up to the second degree of consanguinity with them may enter the competition. Failure to comply with any of these conditions will result in the disqualification of the contestant or team in question.
At the discretion of each team, they may or may not have one or more advisors, who will be included in their registration form and to whom, if the proposal is successful, IESARQ will give the corresponding credit and recognition as such.
The advisors must, in any case, be over forty years of age and have a verifiable academic, research or relevant professional career.
The documentation accrediting the legal participation of each entrant must be verified at the time of submitting the proposal.
CRITERIA
The originality of the proposal will be valued, as well as the quality of the graphic expression, the precision in the representation of the different documents that express the proposal and the coherence between the ideas and what is represented, in relation to the proposed theme as well as its relation with the most important theories and philosophical currents related to the theme of the contest.
JURY
The jury will be officially published on the Felix Candela Award website (www.premiofelixcandela.mx) and disseminated through IESARQ's social networks.
PRIZES
The originality of the proposal will be valued, as well as the quality of the graphic expression, the precision in the representation of the different documents that express the proposal and the coherence between the ideas and what is represented, in relation to the proposed theme as well as its relation with the most important theories and philosophical currents related to the theme of the contest.
First Phase
Eight teams of finalists will be selected. They will participate in project workshops during the Second Phase.
•Selection of architectural books and magazines package.
•Diploma
Second Phase
FIRST PRIZE
The winning team will be awarded the Félix Candela Award, which consists of:
•A commemorative medal and certificate for all team members
•$90,000.00 MXN (ninety thousand Mexican pesos) to be divided among all team members
SECOND PRIZE
•A commemorative medal and certificate for all team members
•$40,000.00 MXN (forty thousand Mexican pesos) to be divided among all team members
THIRD PRIZE
•A commemorative medal and certificate for all team members
•$25,000.00 MXN (twenty-five thousand Mexican pesos) to be divided among all team members
The jury may grant Honorable Mentions to as many projects that it considers to deserve such a distinction. Honorable Mentions do not include a cash prize.
*The payment of awards will occur through electronic transfer to the bank account indicated by the winning team. All applicable tax withholdings will be administered. The payment will be made during a term no greater than 90 calendar days following the jury’s decision.
SCHEDULE AND DEADLINES
START OF THE COMPETITION
August 12, 2024
REGISTRATION PERIOD 1
August 12 to October 12, 2024
PUBLICATION OF THE JURY
October 4, 2024
CONSULTATION PERIOD CLOSES
October 9, 2024
PUBLICATION OF FAQ
October 10th, 2024
REGISTRATION PERIOD 2
October 13, 2024 to February 6, 2025
REGISTRATION PERIOD 3
From February 7 to May 19, 2025
CLOSE OF REGISTRATION
May 19, 2025
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS (1ST PHASE)
Until May 19, 2025
ANNOUNCEMENT OF FINALISTS SELECTION
June 2025
DEVELOPMENT OF WORKSHOPS (2ND PHASE)
From June 2025
REGISTRATION
The registration period begins on August 12, 2024 and ends on May 19, 2025 at 23:59 hours in CDMX (Central American Time (CET) = UTC/GMT - 6:00).
The following registration fees are established according to the date on which the contestant registers:
REGISTRATION PERIOD 1
(12/08/2024 to 12/10/2024) $1500 MXN
REGISTRATION PERIOD 2
(13/10/2024 to 06/02/2025): $2100 MXN
REGISTRATION PERIOD 3
(07/02/2025 to 19/05/2025): $3000 MXN
Payment can be made by any of the following methods:
PAYPAL through the web or directly to the mail: premiofelixcandela@iesarq.mx
International bank transfer:
BENEFICIARY
INSTITUTO ESPAÑOL DE ARQUITECTURA
BANK
BBVA BANCOMER
CLABE ACCOUNT
01 2180 0011 1148 7296
SWIFT CODE
BCMRMXMM
In all cases, the documentation accrediting the payment order through PAYPAL or the deposit/bank transfer receipt certifying the corresponding payment must be sent to the following e-mail address: secretaria@premiofelixcandela.mx.
As soon as the payment has been verified, IESARQ will send an e-mail confirming the registration to the competition and indicating the assigned registration number. Without verification of the registration payment, the previous registration application will be invalid and the contestant will have to make a new one if he/she wishes to participate.
*Bank commissions or bank transfer costs are not included in the registration fee. The interested party will have to assume these costs.
**No registration that has not been formalized in these terms will be valid.
***Payment and registration is unique per team.
EXHIBITION AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
Once the competition has concluded, all the finalists and a selection of other submissions, at the discretion of the jury, will be published on the website of the Félix Candela Award and will be disseminated on IESARQ’s social media accounts. A public exhibition may also be organized featuring the finalists and a selection made by the jury of other submissions. This exhibition, if it is organized, will be announced to all participants, whether or not their submissions have been selected.
Intellectual Property Rights: Competitors will solely cede to IESARQ the exploitation rights that correspond to the object of publicizing the competition and its results, such as the publication and exhibition of the work submitted, as selected by the jury, while those competitors that have not been awarded will remain anonymous if they so request.
In the case of the winning submissions, the economic remuneration from the award will be taken as payment for a design and they will become the property of IESARQ.
Participation and registration in the competition implies agreement with the above conditions.
Once registration has occurred, the registration fee will not be reimbursed. The jury, through majority vote, is the only authorized body responsible for the final selection of the competition’s winners and its rulings cannot be appealed.
IESARQ reserves the right to modify the terms of this competition (periods, deadlines, requirements, etc.) should any exceptional situation arise, provided that it is at the service of the common good of its participants and its proper development.
As, upon registering, participants agree to accept the final decisions of the jury, IESARQ and the members of the jury are hereby exonerated from any civil or penal action in the event that an architect or team does not agree with the final decision.
Todos los derechos reservados
INSTITUTO ESPAÑOL DE ARQUITECTURA
