News

• The €20,000 prize aims to stimulate architectural innovation and contribute ideas that serve to define 21st century housing.

• Catalonia and the Madrid Region account for 60% of all the entries submitted, and 60% of the participating architects are less than 40 years old and come mainly from Spain, but also from other European and Latin American countries.
  
  
• Pictures of the finalist projects will be on display at the Solvia booth in the Barcelona Meeting Point exhibition, where visitors will enjoy a brand-new experience by being part of the Solvia Innova Housing Observatory, through eight interactive stations that including immersive reality and 3D prints.

Architects from Europe and Latin America have submitted a total of 237 projects for the first edition of the Solvia Award, designed to stimulate architectural innovation and contribute ideas that serve to define what 21st century housing,adapted to current uses and social requirements, should be like.   

Miguel Montes, chairman of the award panel and Vice-President of Solvia, Banco Sabadell's real estate branch, has had the following to say: ”The number and quality of the projects submitted perfectly reflect the interest that this first edition has attracted. We are very satisfied; we wanted to encourage innovation in housing design and building. The architects' response clearly shows that we made the right decision with this initiative, and with our endeavour to promote reflection on the real estate process in today's context of change and introduction of new uses and social models, driven by technological advances."

  Naturally, the highest percentage of the entries has come from Spain and, more specifically, from Catalonia (40%), Madrid (20%), Valencia (12%) and Andalusia (7%), although there have been entries from all the regions. Projects have also been submitted from Belgium, Germany, Italy and Poland, and a total of 24 projects have been produced by architects in Argentina, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela  

Of the 237 participating architects, 60% are professionals under 40 years old, and the others include 15 other teams that have been led by architects over 60 years old. As a matter of fact, in both cases the architects heading the teams are 72 and 76 years old, respectively.   

An international, first-class panel   

The members of the Solvia Award panel were Miguel Montes, VP of Solvia, the architects Anne Lacaton (Lacaton & Vassal), Josep Bohigas, Juan Herreros, Xavier Monteys and Zaida Muxí, the Chairman of the Banco Sabadell Foundation, Miquel Molins, and the Head of Communication and Institutional Relations of Banco Sabadell, Ramon Rovira.   

The entries submitted were of such high quality that the panel decide to shortlist 9 projects, instead of the 7 envisaged in the contest rules, which were posted on the website www.solviainnova.es.   

The panel was particularly impressed by the degree of flexibility and adaptability to users' personal and family circumstances throughout their life cycle, the high spatial quality, inclusion of environmental sustainability criteria, economically viable execution with reduced construction costs and good maintenance and durability, and the exploitation of housing access models such as purchase, rental and other formulas.   

The shortlisted architects must now submit a demo of their project and the panel will decide the winner of this first edition of the Solvia Award, the award ceremony being scheduled to take place in Madrid on 26th November. Pictures of the shortlisted projects will be on display in the Solvia booth at the Barcelona Meeting Point (BMP) to be held in Barcelona from 29th October to 2nd November.   

Solvia's innovative booth at the Barcelona Meeting Point   

Solvia's 200-plus square metre booth at the BMP will include two clearly distinct areas, one for sales and another for innovation. Solvia intends to take advantage of this major real estate event to highlight its industry leadership, with a value proposition based on rigour, seriousness, professionalism and innovation.   

Anyone visiting BMP will get the chance to enjoy a brand-new experience at the Solvia booth by being part of the Solvia Innova Housing Observatory, through eight interactive stations that including immersive reality and 3D prints. The full array of technology on display, with videos, interactive games and demos, mean visitors can find out what Solvia is doing, and about housing trends and future scenarios.

Solvia's iPad-based customer service will enable it to attend to visitors beyond the booth, offering them a dynamic, path-breaking service.   

Solvia is one of Spain's leading real estate operators, and for some time now has been working on developing innovative initiatives that so as to reshape the real estate industry of the future. One such example is the Solvia Innova Observatory, intended as a place for study and reflection on what the housing of the coming years should be like.   

It was in the context of this observatory that the Innova Award arose and where the Future Trends in the housing environment report, the first of this scope ever published to date in Spain, was presented in July. Another scheme recently launched by Solvia, in line with this commitment to real estate innovations, was the 0.0 Madrid project, in partnership with the College of Architects of Madrid (COAM), which focuses on the design of urban housing with almost zero energy consumption.