Architecture Competition Caramel Shore Traveler Rooms AAPPAREL Sustainability prize winners – Lucas Yael Ibarra Lages, Cun Hernandez and Juliana Lareu

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to the AAPPAREL Sustainability prize winners of our "Caramel Shore Traveler Rooms" competition – Lucas Yael Ibarra Lages, Cun Hernandez and Juliana Lareu from Germany!

AAPPAREL Sustainability award winners from Germany

We are three young architects living between Europe and South America. We are based now in Germany and Argentina, in the search to dissolve borders and expand horizons by exploring and designing new architectures together.

We are connected by the passion for architecture, the way to see the world through architecture with social commitment and respect and care for nature, the environment and all the diversities that inhabit it, in a more inclusive and eco-socially sustainable way. That made us also close friends while studying together at University and created this new contest team.

We participated for the first time together in a contest as collaborators in 2015. After finishing our studies in Argentina, we continue working in architecture companies and autonomously both in Argentina and in Germany.

Juliana is co-founder and director of Superpraxis, an architectural practice working interdisciplinary in bio-architecture and design with biomaterials based on mycelium and local waste in Argentina, where carried out a new mycelium living bio-installation in 2021.  She also works on projects and construction of small collective housing, has participated in urban intervention and teaches architecture at Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata.

Lucas integrate the design team of Essenz architecture based in Berlin. The studio is focused on the research of complex geometry with a nature background. Besides the studio, he also works on small urban projects, around the concept of urban acupuncture, with the goal to revive waste spaces around the city of Berlin.

Facundo forms part of an architectural studio in Berlin, designing mainly on a residential scale. His major involvement is dedicated to the area of design and construction. Having a background in three-dimensional design, he explores the integration of new technologies and sustainable materials applied in architecture while maintaining a human-centred approach.

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance, what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where the company/ individuals have been involved?

Although our offices work on different scales, we have common interest and have worked on urban acupuncture and activation of public space, flexible small-architectures and biomaterial exploration in alliance with other living beings: multi-species architectures.

As part of Superpraxis, Juliana developed the materialisation of Refugio Fúngico in 2021, a mycelium living bio-installation of 3,40m high at Patagonia Argentina, currently exhibited at the Biennale of Young Art in Buenos Aires, among other projects between intervention in public space and urban acupuncture in 2020, collective housing projects since 2016 and active participation in small-scale urban and architecture competitions.

Lucas has been working for several offices between Argentina and Germany, exploring all the projects scales. During the years in Berlin, the main focus shifted to an urban point of view, on the search of spaces that have been forgotten. In December 2020, a project in a small bridge in Berlin was born, Brückenbunker revive a space between the structure for several months.

Facundo participated in different architectural competitions and he forms part of an international team exploring traditional Japanese construction ideas mixed with Western design integration. On the other hand, he worked as a 3D artist in Copenhagen creating light sculptures of organic forms inspired by nature. He is also active as an independent architect, developing commercial and residential projects.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in our society?

Architecture means the mediation between the world and its inhabitants. It means the creation of scenarios that make life possible, as well as to build community between human beings, and also other species. Being composed with the landscape, architecture is a reflection of a culture, its identity and a geographical context, responding to the times in which it lives.

The role of an architect is to co-create spaces capable of being appropriated by those who inhabit them, more inclusive with the human and non-human diversities that are part of  the of ecosystems networks, collaborating with the preservation of the environment.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

We participate because it encourages us to explore and share some new perspectives about contemporary architecture, as well as the possibility of materializing these new ideas and to approach to other cultures. It also presents the opportunity to see the diversity and plurality of ideas developed under the same requirements.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture competitions?

We believe that participating in architecture competitions is a great opportunity to rethink and make new proposals, going through research about the site, on those who inhabit it and their culture, and the characteristics of its ecosystem, being able to translate them into an architecture project. Although you can participate alone, we recommend working as a team because the exchange of ideas between participants is a very enriching experience.