Parish Church, Marco de Canavezes

Winners of the Pritzker Prize in 1989 and 1992 respectively, the American Frank Gehry and the Portuguese Álvaro Siza represent two forms of contemporary practice, diametrically opposed but with equal influence. Although the final round of the third edition of the Iberfad Awards also included the cover for a frontón court in Miranda de Arga, by Luis Tena, an industrial warehouse in Pamplona, by Francisco Mangado, and the conversion of the monastery of Santa Maria de Bouro by Eduardo Souto de Moura, the real competition was between the theatrical Guggenheim Museum by Gehry in Bilbao, and the delicate church by Siza in Marco de Canavezes. While recognizing the value of the architecture of the museum as an expression of the current spectacular condition of art, and its capacity to convert the titanium volumes into a symbol of the physical and cultural regeneration of the Basque capital, the jury opted for the church; a slim volume, white and luminous, which contains the abstracted elements of traditional religious architecture, managing to express with an unexpected intensity the sublime nature of faith.