César Manrique, National Building Award posthumously

César Manrique has been awarded, posthumously, coinciding with the centenary of his birth, this Thursday, November 14, with the National Building Award granted for the first time by the General Council of Technical Architecture of Spain (CGATE), the coordinating body of all the Associations of Quantity Surveyors and Technical Architects nationwide, with more than 50,000 members.

The award was collected yesterday afternoon in Madrid by the director of the César Manrique Foundation (FCM), Fernando Gómez Aguilera, from the Minister of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning of the Government of the Canary Islands, José Antonio Valbuena.

Gómez Aguilera stressed during his speech the current need for "visionary capacities of anticipation like that of César Manrique, his defense of the architectural peculiarities of each place on the planet, his alliance with the roots of what has been created, and his confidence in art and culture as transformative social energies at the service of life, of a project of well-being and collective happiness".

Likewise, the director of the FCM stated: "In César Manrique's conception, there was no aesthetics without ethics, an ethics that places respect for nature at its center, as he placed it in his landscape interventions, in the constructions integrated into the environment that he promoted in the service of shared happiness, and in the vindication of sustainable, balanced and humanized urban growth, in accordance with a planet and limited resources."

When granting this award to Manrique, the jury valued the artist's vital and creative career "which he combined with the defense of the environmental values of the Canary Islands, especially the island of Lanzarote." It also took into account "his public attitude of commitment to the island's natural and cultural heritage, particularly traditional architecture," and the fact that he proposes "an important work of public art and landscaping that combines tradition and modernity." Finally, the jury wanted to recognize "the defense of the natural and cultural heritage of Lanzarote, its integration of buildings into the landscape, respect for nature and the search for harmony between interior design and creative outdoor spaces, as well as his artistic work as an ambassador of culture and nature."

The proposal for the candidacy of the artist creator of great landscape works in Lanzarote, recognized internationally, came from the Association of Quantity Surveyors and Technical Architects of Lanzarote, an organization to which the FCM thanks for its generous initiative and support both to the artist and his work in the year in which the centenary of his birth is commemorated.

In this 1st Edition of the National Building Awards, César Manrique shared the award with the Santa María Albarracín Foundation and the Murcian technical architect and university professor at the Polytechnic University of Cartagena, Antonio Garrido.

The gala was hosted by the presenter Silvia Jato and included a speech by Alfredo Sanz Corma, president of the CGATE, as well as a conference by the economist José María Gay de Liébana on his vision of the impact of the real estate sector on the economy.

The celebration of the first edition of the National Building Awards, attended by various personalities linked to the economic, political and academic fields, took place in the Rafael del Pino Auditorium in Madrid, with the sponsorship of PREMAAT, MUSAAT and the Sorigue? business group.