Architecture Competition Pavilion Of Humanity: First Contact Honorable mention – Diogo André Gonçalves Ferreira, Juan Manuel Jaramillo Londoño and Sanad Wir

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to one of our Honorable mention winners for our “Pavilion Of Humanity: First Contact” competition – Diogo André Gonçalves Ferreira, Juan Manuel Jaramillo Londoño and Sanad Wir from Italy!

Diogo André Gonçalves Ferreira, Juan Manuel Jaramillo Londoño and Sanad Wir from Italy

We are three students from various backgrounds (Colombia, Portugal, Jordan) who attended Politecnico di Milano for architectural studies.

Juan Manuel Jaramillo Londoño: Architect from the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana at Medellín, Colombia, with design experience in international architectural offices located in Paris and Milan, and in several international and national architectural competitions where the proposed designs have received recognition.

Diogo André Gonçalves Ferreira: Graduated as an architect from the University of Lisbon (FAUTL), Portugal, currently finishing a master’s degree in Architecture and Urban Design at Politecnico di Milano. Enthusiastic for multidisciplinary exercises that are born from the symbiosis of architecture with other fields of society, such as art.

Sanad Ayed Issa Wir: Architect from Amman, Jordan, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in architecture and art history from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and a master’s degree in architecture from Politecnico di Milano. Currently living and working in Milan, Italy.

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?

This was the first time the three of us have collaborated on a project, however, each of us has been involved in various projects over the years:

Juan Manuel Jaramillo Londoño has been specializing in public buildings with an emphasis on urban and landscape development, with a particular interest in understanding different local cultures as a contribution to the construction of a global and international architecture.

Sanad Ayed Issa Wir has worked on various projects that vary in scale from urban design to domestic housing, with an interest in flexibility of architectural design as it continues to evolve and change over the years. Competed in five competitions over the last year, winning the Co-Design Milan competition held by Unfuse in February 2020.

Diogo André Gonçalves Ferreira has a special interest in exploring the boundaries between architecture, art, and other fields of society. He has been creating projects from the housing scale to the territorial, and lately has been developing works related to the public service and performative arts.

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

Architecture is the perfect synthesis of the human relationship with the territory, where culture is founded and where the natural and human heritage is contained as a fundament for future inhabitants. It is the language we use to organize space through time, changing our environment towards the common will of eternity, creating spaces for human interaction.

As architects, we are the sum of cultural and historical inputs that we translate through our practice, creating spaces which people inhabit and where they exchange ideas. This exercise needs to address both the tangible and intangible aspects of our reality. In summary, our role is to perpetuate the story of a given context or rather disrupt it, providing people with a medium to challenge their perspective towards the future of their society.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

Outside our academic and professional lives, we are constantly debating various architectural ideas. Sitting in a bar with a couple of beers, smoking cigarettes, and sketching on paper napkins – it is usually the moment when the best ideas come to the table, and we look for the right competitions to showcase them.

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

Looking at our experience with architecture competitions, we suggest using them as a platform to express your ideas outside of an academic field. Therefore, we advise you to choose the right competition that fits with a topic of your interest, something that you will enjoy working on without fear of failure. We guarantee you will have good bar conversations with lots of shared experience, knowledge, and the possibility of winning.