Announcing Imanol Iparraguirre and Aritz Díez Oronoz as the Winners of the 2019 Award for Emerging Excellence in the Classical Tradition

The Award, which is now in its third year, is a collaboration between the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA), the Prince's Foundation (PF), and the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism (INTBAU). Open to applicants around the world, the Award aims to shine a light on exceptional talent exhibited by young professionals in classical and traditional architecture, landscape and interior design, building crafts, urban design and planning, and the allied arts.

Imanol studied Architecture at the University of the Basque Country in San Sebastián, and holds a MSc in Conservation of Historic Buildings from the same university, where he has been a teaching assistant of Architectural Design and Conservation since 2015 and is currently pursuing a PhD in Architecture. Aritz Díez Oronoz studied at the School of Architecture of Donostia-San Sebastián and additionally holds a MSc in Conservation at the University of the Basque Country, where he is currently pursuing his PhD alongside Imanol. 

Imanol and Aritz began working together in 2015, and their collaborations have earned them first prize in both the 2017 and 2018 Richard H. Driehaus Architecture Competition (for their projects "Main Square and Palace of the Earls of Grajal de Campos", which aimed to recover the urban space and typology of the Plaza Mayor, and "Medieval Walls & Surroundings of the Convent of La Coria in Trujillo", a project in tribute to the historical architectural styles of the city that make it both unique and universal). Their current projects include an ongoing masterplan together with professors Alberto Ustarroz and Manuel Iñiguez that seeks to continue restorations of the historic walls of Hondarribia.

"We are honored and truly grateful to receive the Award for Emerging Excellence in the Classical Tradition," said Imanol and Aritz, who were selected by an international jury comprised of representatives from the ICAA, PF, and INTBAU. "It is for us an enormous impulse that encourages us to continue with our work and also to keep on learning from those architectures of the past—classical or vernacular—which are the best models for any architect willing to reconstruct the European city."

Imanol Iparraguirre and Aritz Díez Oronoz will be honored at a ceremony on Sunday, May 5, 2019 in New York City. They will also be acknowledged before the audience at the Arthur Ross Awards the following evening and will receive a $2,500 cash prize.

The ICAA would like to thank our 2019 Award for Emerging Excellence Sponsor, Robert Bump Construction.

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