Filming Collective and Personal Places

Not many architecture awards can boast of merging architecture and wrestling, but that is just what the Simon Company did earlier this year, when it launched the fifth edition of Living Places - Simon Architecture Prize with a new short film, “El Luchador,” featuring a professional wrestler inside Agustín Hernández's famous Taller de Arquitectura in Mexico City. Among other things, the short film invited architects, filmmakers, and clients to be creative with their submissions for the prize.

Simon, the Mies Foundation, and the five-member jury (chaired by Andrés Jaque with Amanda Sans, Verena Von Beckerath, Gabriela de Matos, and Salvi Plaja) are looking to “distinguish architectural projects (including interiors, public spaces and landscaping) whose excellence enhances the capacity of spaces to provide comfort to their inhabitants and to promote the use of video as a tool to bring architecture closer to the general public.”

Well over 200 videos were submitted in two categories — Collective Places (138 entries) and Personal Places (97 entries) — with five finalists determined in each category. Videos in the first category range from from the domestic to the infrastructural, and are found in rural areas as well as highly urbanized zones, while the narratives in the second category express how domestic spaces address a diversity of issues, from climate change and creating habitats for other species to memory and even hedonism.

The ten finalists are illustrated below, accompanied by project details and links for watching the videos — all of the videos are between two and three minutes long so can be watched in less than a half hour. Check back here in two weeks, when we'll share the two winners upon their announcement.

Altar2024 in Xochimilco, Mexico
Studios: Taller Popular de Diseño, Taller Uno a Uno and Manuel Alejandro
Video: Gabriela Trigueros, Naz Blancas and Amaranta Flores

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Screenplay and direction: Gabriela Trigueros + Naz Blancas + Amaranta Flores
Producer: Amaranta Flores
Editor: Amaranta Flores
Music timelapse of nature: Marble Space
Cinematography: Andrés Cedillo + Zaicks Moz

Coconut Harvester Center in Sumaúma Village, Brazil
Studio: Estudio Flume
Video: Luara Oliveira

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Editing and Cinematography: Luara Oliveira
Production: Marina Lickel
Post-Production: Alexandre Taira

Consell de Cent Green Hub in Barcelona, Spain
Studio: Cierto Estudio and B67 Arquitectes
Video: Matilda Vidal de Llobatera

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Production: Cierto Estudio i B67 Arquitectes
Director: Matilda Vidal de Llobatera
Producer: Camilo Villaverde
Director of photography director: Aitor Navarro
Sound: Marçal Forès
Editing: Joel Rojas
Cast: Marçal Forès i veïns

Riells Square in Bigues i Riells, Spain
Studio: Comas Pont Arquitectes
Video: Adriá Goula

WATCH VIDEO HERE

The Communal Barbecue in Castell d’Aro, Spain
Studio: h3o architects
Video: Nina Amat

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Authors: Adrià Orriols Camps, Miquel Ruiz Planella, Joan Gener González

10k House in Barcelona, Spain
Studio: TAKK
Video: TAKK

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Photos: José Hevia

Chikenk’s Atelier in Cunha, Brazil
Studio: Messina Rivas
Video: Federico Cairoli

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Director: Federico Cairoli
Editor: Gabriel Vaschetto

Kontigo in Acapulco, Mexico
Studio: Manuel Cervantes Estudio
Video: Manuel Cervantes Estudio

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Ventura 7 in Banyoles, Spain
Studio: Sarquella Torres
Video: FRAU Recerques visuals

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Original Idea: Irena Visa, Pau Sarquella, and Carmen Torres
Audiovisual Creation: FRAU Recerques visuals
Color Grading: Aleix Pegenaute
Piano: Lluís Robirola
Music: Mother's Love by Emahoy Tsegue Mariam Gebru
Voice-over: Irena Visa

Villain House in Barcelona, Spain
Studio: Architecture Office Clàudia Raurell
Video: Kiku Piñol

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Direction: Kiku Piñol
Cast: Julia Ruiz
Script: Kiku Piñol, Clàudia Raurell, Alejandra Alonso
Production: Sonia Vergara
Edit: Aimar Galdós