A multi-million euro project to build a new headquarters for Spain’s Ribera del Duero wine region has scooped a leading international architecture prize.
The €6.4m (£4.6m, US$9.3m) new office for the region’s generic body, or Consejo Regulador, won the Young Architect of the Year category in the 2007 Emirates Glass LEAF Awards, which recognise projects, companies and individuals which have made outstanding contributions to the world of architecture.
The Young Architect of the Year category rewards up-and-coming architects and is a new addition to the awards, now in their fourth year. With nearly 150 entrants from 33 countries in 2007, the awards were presented during a gala dinner at London’s Waldorf Hilton last month.
Estudio Barozzi Veiga designed the new Ribera del Duero headquarters at Roa, Burgos. It is set for completion in December 2010.
The project, covering an area of over 3,500m2, involves the conversion of an existing building and an extension to accommodate new offices.
Built on the edge of town and using locally sourced stone, the project was given a lyrical description on the awards website.
‘The building can be understood as a single expression of its surroundings, as an element of transition between the urban landscape where it is inserted and the natural landscape it confronts,’ said the website. ‘The building moves between these double tensions: it moves as it follows, adapts and finds an architectonic form for the meanings that synthesise the city and the landscape.’
German Muñoz of the Consejo Regulador of Ribera del Duero said the organisation was ‘very happy’ to have won the prize.
The award caps a good month for Ribera del Duero, which moved up from fourth place to become the second biggest-selling wine region in Spain (in terms of market share) behind Rioja.
Written by Richard Woodard
