The Danish Henrik F. Obel Foundation has granted the 2024 Obel Award to a body of 36 public works by the Mexican architectural design firm Colectivo C733.
Promoted by the Agrarian, Land and Urban Development Ministry (Sedatu), the projects restored vulnerable urban and rural areas across Mexico through a collaborative and community-focused approach.
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“Colectivo C733 exemplifies the power of collective action and collaborative design to rapidly respond to urgent urban needs,” the jury said. “Their ability to transform 36 communities through thoughtful, resource-efficient and dignified architectural interventions is a blueprint for future public works projects worldwide.”
Each year, the Obel Award establishes a focus. For this edition, the jury sought projects that were designed not only for the community but with the community. “Colectivo C733 points towards new approaches to the practice of designing and shaping our collectively built environment,” the Obel jury wrote.
Founded in 2019, Colectivo C733 is made up of the architecture practices of Gabriela Carrillo (Taller Gabriela Carrillo) and Carlos Facio & José Amozurrutia (TO), along with Eric Valdez (Labg) and Israel Espin. The firm is known for creating modular, flexible and cost-efficient designs that allow for different combinations and contextualized variations, depending on the local environment.
The award’s judges said that the collective’s success is particularly remarkable given that they completed in 36 months what would have initially taken years, all within a “complex” social, political, environmental and financial context. Bringing together 30 architects and a multidisciplinary team of consultants, they compressed the process within a timeframe “practically unheard of by today’s standards.”
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The winning 36 projects include works in the following communities across Mexico: San Blas, Tulum, Tapachula, Bacalar, Ciudad Acuña, Matamoros, Ayoxuxtla, Nacajuca, Tamulté, Xpujil, Balancán and Tenosique. Colectivo C733’s Casa de Música, in Nacajuca, Tabasco, also won the 2023 Work of the Year award granted by ArchDaily to the best architecture in Latin America and Spain.
About the Henrik F. Obel Foundation
The Obel Award recognizes outstanding architectural contributions to social and ecological development around the world. The winning projects should offer seminal approaches to urgent problems and a commitment to the common good.
The award is granted every year by the Henrik F. Obel Foundation, founded by an endowment left by Henrik Frode Obel (1942 – 2014), a notable Danish businessman who devoted his entire fortune to creating a foundation that rewards exceptional works of architecture.
Mexico News Daily
