Estadio Municipal de Braga

Eduardo Souto de Moura won the 47th FAD Award for Architecture for building the Municipal Stadium of Braga, a unique, monumental structure boxed into an old quarry outside the city. Part of a series of stadiums built or renovated for the Portugal Eurocup of 2004, this par excellence structure for mass spectacles is characterized by the face-to-face arrangement of its two grandstands and the canopy over the tiers, which according to the author is inspired by Inca bridges. Expressly shunning the technological image that stadiums like to adopt and capitalizing instead on their archaic connotations, here the Portuguese architect deals with the large geometric scale and nature. The esplanade of the Barcelona Forum and its photovoltaic pergola, by Martínez Lapeña & Torres, was awarded in the Outdoor Spaces category; the renovation of the auditorium of the Catalonian Institute of Building Technology by Clotet & Paricio won the FAD for Interior Design; and the “Fountainhead” installation of artist Joaquín Casanova and architects Javier Castellano and Rubens Cortés capped the Ephemeral Spaces award.