The Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP) has announced the winner of the fifth MCHAP.emerge award: the Community Production Center Las Tejedoras in Guayas, Ecuador, designed by Natura Futura architect José Fernando Gómez and architect Juan Carlos Bamba. The project offers a hub for local women artisans, providing them with spaces to learn, create, and showcase their textile creations. The winner announcement was made at the Conference on Critical Practice held at Mies van der Rohe's S. R. Crown Hall, an inaugural event that brought together the four MCHAP.emerge finalists to open up conversations about the future of the architecture profession across the Americas.
The biennial MCHAP Prize for Emerging Practice (MCHAP.emerge) aims to acknowledge the best-built works of architecture in the Americas completed between 2022 and 2023. The winning project has been selected out of the four finalists announced earlier this year. During this first edition of the Conference on Critical Practice, all finalists had the chance to discuss their approach and engage in conversations around themes including ecology, technology, agency, and generation shifts.
We are thrilled to honor the Community Production Center Las Tejedoras, a true demonstration of how the next generation of architects can confront issues of our time with economy and elegance. Along with the other MCHAP.emerge finalist works, the rich conversations of the last few days have generated a multiplicity of ideas to empower future practitioners. - MCHAP Director Dirk Denison
The winning project has been recognized for its civic presence and contextual understanding of both the needs and the unique skills of the local community of Chongón, in Guayas, Ecuador. The center was designed for a collective of women weavers who lacked a dedicated space to practice their craft. The architectural project takes cues from the artisan identity, bringing together local materials such as teak wood and clay brick laid in a herringbone pattern. The design is also influenced by the local climate, prioritizing natural ventilation and light. At its center, a green patio filled with native plants connects the spaces dedicated to training areas, practical workshops, community gatherings, and storage for the creations.
Located near Guayaquil, the project presents a counter-narrative to the rapid urban expansion that characterizes the area, prioritizing instead a space adjusted to community needs that also encourages biodiversity. By reintroducing native vegetation and endemic plants like guarumos and heliconias, it also provides adequate conditions for birds and insects displaced by nearby developments.
Opened in 2023, the center soon became a reliable platform for economic and social progress in the community. It hosts workshops on weaving and sustainable agriculture, empowers women to participate in the local economy, and promotes a closer connection to the environment.
Read on for the MCHAP Jury Statement.
Speaking on behalf of the jury, Jury Chair Maurice Cox said, "The winning project, the Community Production Center Las Tejedoras, is infused with civic presence capable of dignifying the entire community. Acknowledging the significance of the community's local building practices, the project gives formal expression to local crafts and elevates their qualities. The two-story courtyard, framing the sky, serves as a threshold between the community and the interior workshops, while also providing a central gathering space that seamlessly integrates both architecture and landscape. The structure, designed for natural ventilation, shade, and cost-efficiency, utilizes indigenous materials in a clean and beautifully assembled manner. Specifically, the paired columns and beams of raw teak wood used throughout the building elevate the level of detail to one of sophisticated construction."
The building operates as a teaching tool. The involvement of local women artisans in the project's construction gives true meaning to the South African expression 'nothing about us, without us, is for us.' - Jury Chair Maurice Cox
"The project not only provides employment in the community but also facilitates skill development through active participation in the construction process," Cox continued. Notably, the structure stands as a physical symbol of community, reflecting the contributions of the local women in its construction. This agency embedded into the project scope from the client partner, the Young Living Foundation, to the hands that built it represents its mission for education, small-business enterprise, and the right of all people to have access to beauty."
In addition to Cox, the jury includes Giovanna Borasi, director, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal; Gregg Pasquarelli, founding principal, SHoP Architects, New York; Mauricio Rocha, founder, Taller | Mauricio Rocha, Mexico City, and author of the 2023 Americas Prize-winning project, the renovation of the Museo Anahuacalli; and Sofia von Ellrichshausen, founding partner, Pezo von Ellrichshausen, Concepción, Chile, and author of Poli House, the 2014 winner of the Prize for Emerging Practice. The other finalists of the MCHAP.emerge Cycle 5 are Housing Building on Virrey Aviles Street designed by Juan Campanini-Josefina Sposito, the PILARES Cuicuilco created by TO, +UdeB Arquitectos, AGENdA agencia de arquitectura, and the Elementary School in Santa Cruz de Villacuri Community, by Estudio Copla and Atelier Ander Bados.
