House in Púbol, Gerona

The brief career of Lluís Jubert (1965) and Eugènia Santacana (1967) has been given a decisive push with the 40th edition of the Catalan Fomento de las Artes Decorativas Awards. Their bar Jazzmatazz in Barcelona was selected in the interior design section, and the Jordi Cantarell house in Púbol was recognized with the award for Architecture. Commissioned by a painter and furniture restorer who demanded a reduced domestic area and an ample exhibition hall, the house was also designed in relation to its setting, burying part of the volume to protect it from the immediate environment – a chaotic development outside the urban center – and to create its own landscape concentrating on the views of Dali’s Púbol castle. In the final round, this small building, rigorous in its refined geometries and pleasing in its Mediterranean references, ousted an industrial shed for cinema studios by Ferrater and Guibernau in Sant Just Desvern; a covered sports area in Villafranca del Penedés, by Aymerich and Salvadó; and the headquarters of the Chemical Technology Service in Tarragona designed by Brullet, De Luna, Rivas and Molero.