Special Mention International Prize, Brambilla Orsoni Architetti Associati

BL.11.6, Switzerland

Motivation of the jury. The BL.11.6 project tackles the issue of reuse and transformation of built heritage with great sensitivity, offering a reflection on the relationship between memory and contemporaneity.

The authors of the work, drawing on the thinking of Romano Guardini—according to whom the answer lies not in going back, but in looking at things in depth—intervene in the pre-existing structure with a measured gesture: architecture within architecture.

Inside, a contemporary intervention, climatically improved and resolved with simple and accessible materials, introduces new ways of living without denying the original identity of the building.

The strength of the project lies in its essentiality: a clear plan, a direct use of materials, and a contained scale capable of expressing great architectural intensity. The result is an architecture of necessity—an architecture of memory—where conservation and modernity coexist through a respectful view of the past and an open view of the future.

More than a restoration, BL.11.6 proposes an act of continuity, reaffirming the value of domestic architecture and reuse as a central cultural practice for contemporary architecture.