Octavio Pérez, a former student and Projects professor in the ESARQ School of Architecture, and the rest of the Blur Arquitectura team were awarded honourable mention in the 2011-2013 Brick Architecture Awards sponsored by Hispalyt. The team won for their project «Country House at El Cobijo-San Vicente de La Sonsierra».
The Brick Architecture Awards, which were first organized in 1991, are held every two years with the support of the Exposed Brick Division of the Spanish Association of Brick and Clay Tile Manufacturers (Hispalyt). The awards serve two purposes: firstly, to assess architecture in Spain that uses exposed brick and, secondly, to give exposure to the most significant works built during the corresponding award period.
The jury was made up of Ana María Montiel and José María García del Monte, two architects who had won awards in the previous edition; architects Juan Luis Trillo, Manuel Portaceli, José Antonio Martínez Lapeña and Enrique Sanz; and Hispalyt members Elena Santiago, Fernando Palau and Noé Román. The jury chose the project “El Cobijo”, by ESARQ professor and alumnus Octavio Pérez, primarily because it is “a global architectural proposal, in which the latticework façade is integrated with the existing roof and façade”.
First prize in the Brick category went to the architect Toni Gironès for the visitor centre for the Seró megalithic site in Artesa de Segre, Lleida. Second honourable mentions were awarded to Javier Bernalte and José Luis León, as well as H Arquitectes. Bernalte and the members of H Arquitectes have also taught at the ESARQ School of Architecture. In the Tile category, first prize went to Terradas Arquitectos for the restoration of the Barcelona Royal Shipyard.
