Architizer A+Awards 2013: Jury Winner, +Sustainability, Estate in Extremadura

The Estate in Extremadura won the jury award in the +Sustainability category of Architizer's A+Awards in 2013.

In 2013 Architizer launched its A+Awards for the first time, an international programme that separates two distinctions in each category: one decided by the jury and one by public vote. That first edition recognised 87 works in 52 categories, from entries received from more than a hundred countries.

In the +Sustainability category, the jury chose ÁBATON’s Estate in Extremadura, presented as an off-grid home. The public award in the same category went to another practice, so the recognition given to ÁBATON is strictly that of the specialists.

The house occupies a former cattle shed in the province of Cáceres, sheltered by the Sierra de Gredos. The project kept its volumes and its stone and turned it into a family country house with a large living room and kitchen open to the valley. The sustainability the jury recognised does not lie in any visible technical addition, but in the way of inhabiting the place: solar panels for the sunny months, turbines driven by two streams on the estate for the winter, a natural pool instead of a swimming pool.

It is an off-grid house that does not give up the comfort of a family home, and that is why it has accompanied the studio in other competitions: that same year it was shortlisted for the Domus Restauro e Conservazione Prize of the University of Ferrara.

Source: Architizer, announcement of the winners of the first A+Awards (2013).