Kursaal y Palacio Euskalduna

Like a thermometer of design and building quality in the country, the Biennial of Spanish Architecture – jointly organized by the Council of Architectural Institutes, Menéndez Pelayo International University, the University of Alcalá and the Ministry of Public Works – presents every two years a list of works nominated by different institutions and selected by a jury, and these are put on view in a traveling exhibition. Of the seventeen projects chosen for the sixth Biennial, Rafael Moneo’s Kursaal in San Sebastián won the Manuel de la Dehesa Award, and honorary mentions were granted to the urban waste treatment plant of Valdemingómez, by the Madrid partners Iñaki Ábalos & Juan Herreros, and the La Granja stairs in Toledo, by the Catalans José Antonio Martínez Lapeña & Elías Torres. Within the same context and for the first time, the Biennial also gave an Enric Miralles Award for Young Professionals, a prize sponsored by the Caja de Arquitectos Foundation in memory of the illfated Barcelona architect, it was capped by the Euskalduna Palace of Bilbao, by the Madrid studio of Federico Soriano & Dolores Palacios.