International Prize Winner, Natura Futura + Juan Carlos Bamba

Las Tejedoras, Ecuador

Motivation of the jury. It becomes necessary to reposition the role of the architect at the center of contemporary debate. In the face of today’s social and environmental challenges, architecture must embrace its capacity to generate collective processes, activate communities, and create real opportunities. Las Tejedoras embodies this position by materializing — through institutional cooperation from the self-managed initiative — a productive and learning space dedicated to the social and economic empowerment of a community of women artisans.

The project stands out for its precise climatic response, a sensitive structural approach grounded in local materials and knowledge, and a spatial organization defined by flexibility and generosity. Its hybrid program brings together education, production, gathering, and commerce around a central courtyard that, in dialogue with the landscape, becomes the true social heart of the project.

Across Latin America, architectural practices are emerging that expand the disciplinary horizon. Here, innovation arises from collective intelligence, committed forms of practice, and the ability of small offices to make high-quality public architecture possible — affirming that beauty and architectural excellence are not privileges, but fundamental rights.

Granting the Grand Prize to Las Tejedoras recognizes an architecture of essentials: one that integrates material intelligence, constructive simplicity, spatial generosity, and social responsibility, while reaffirming the architect as a facilitator, mediator, and agent of the common good.