The 2023 Rafael Manzano Prize for New Traditional Architecture is awarded to living professionals whose work embodies the principles of classical and traditional architecture and urban planning in the contemporary world. The chosen candidate’s work must not only be aimed at the conservation and rehabilitation of Spain’s traditional architectural and urban heritage, but also contribute to the continuity of the building and architectural traditions that shape it.
The Rafael Manzano Prize is an initiative organized by INTBAU with the collaboration of Kalam, the Fundação Serra Henriques, the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando and Hispania Nostra and has the High Patronage of His Excellency the President of the Republic of Portugal.
The winner of the prize will receive 50,000 euros and a commemorative plaque.
This award does not intend to honor the architects whose works best represent the latest architectural trends, or those whose interventions involve avant-garde transformations of our heritage; on the contrary, it is addressed to those architects whose work has contributed to the preservation, continuation and adaptation to contemporary needs of the building, architectural and urban traditions which define the identity of the places where they were built.
Thus, they are practitioners who, instead of seeking notoriety and novelty through their works, play an important role which is not sufficiently honored because the results, often remain unnoticed, precisely due to their evident continuity with the past.
