Camarim wins Tile of Spain Awards ASCER 2014

Casa no Príncipe Real, Lisbon | Camarim Arquitectos | Photo © Nelson Garrido

The Portuguese architects Vasco Matias Correia and Patricia Ferreira de Sousa, founders of Camarim Arquitectos, have won the Tile of Spain Awards ASCER 2014 in the Architecture category with the project "Casa no Principe Real" in Lisbon.

The judges praised this project, highlighting in particular “the brilliant interpretation in the use of ceramic tiles in Lisbon’s historic quarter. The house, built on five floors, looks out onto the street boasting a new textured take on the traditional ceramic tile façade”.

Casa no Príncipe Real, Lisbon | Camarim Arquitectos | Photo © Nelson Garrido

Casa no Príncipe Real, Lisbon | Camarim Arquitectos | Photo © Nelson Garrido

The building features a magnificent façade treatment which is organized in three stages, corresponding to the ground floor plain tiles, the bas-relief tiles on the two middle floors and the lacquered perforated-steel shutters on the rooftop floor. The pale green tiles used on the building were produced in Spain, from a reinterpretation of the former original tiles. According to the architects, the traditional tiles that existed in the original building were irrecoverable but served as a starting point to conceive the materiality, texture and color of the building.

“The building's skin is a contemporary approach to the tiles covering the former building, which was in advanced state of decay. We defined a set of abstract rules to transform the original tile's motif in an abstract pattern, embodied in 3 distinct media: a flat-tile base, a bas-relief-tile body and a perforated-steel, light-permeable, entablature.”

Casa no Príncipe Real, Lisbon | Camarim Arquitectos | Photo © Nelson Garrido

Casa no Príncipe Real, Lisbon | Camarim Arquitectos | Photo © Nelson Garrido

Interpretation of ceramic tile | Camarim Arquitectos 

Created in 2002, the prize was awarded only twice outside Spain, and this year for the first time to a Portuguese project. The panel of judges of this 13th edition comprises Martha Thorne, director of the Pritzker Prize, Fernando Márquez Cecilia, Director of El Croquis magazine, and Emilio Tunon, winner of the Mies Van der Rohe Award.

The competition for the Tile of Spain Awards of Architecture and Interior Design is organized and promoted by ASCER (Spanish Ceramic Tile Manufacturers’ Association). The prizes aim to improve awareness and understanding of ceramic tiles made in Spain amongst architects and interior designers and promote their use by these professionals.

The two main categories are Architecture and Interiors, with a prize of € 17,000 each. There is also a prize intended for architecture students, in the amount of € 5,000.

More at: www.premiosceramica.com