ARKxSITE architecture competitions has announced winners for the Site Theatre competition considered for a site in Baleal, Peniche, Portugal. The international one-stage architecture ideas competition invited all architecture students, young architects and young professionals with a degree in architecture studies (≤ 40 years old) to develop and submit compelling ideas for the design of a Site Theatre located on a site promontory near the Fortress of Baleal, in Baleal, Peniche, Portugal.

The Baleal Fortress is a significant landmark located within a remarkable place; a powerful natural scenery where the remains of the Fortress rises from the landscape and together with the cliff surfaces eroded by the wind are notable features within this setting.

When generating a vision for an intervention located within such a spectacular place, it was essential that each design proposal emphasises, respects and celebrates the site and existing ruins, while providing visitors with a unique experience.

The competition has selected 3 winners from Spain, Poland and France and 6 Honorable Mentions from Spain, Greece, Portugal, Italy and Brazil. 

The jury panel was comprised of Swedish architects firm Lisa Ekstrom + Erik Gardell from Skalso Arkitekter, Spanish architects Juan Antonio Serrano Garcia + Paloma Baquero Masats of Serrano+Baquero and Argentinian architect Luciano Kruk.

See the winning projects with jury comments below:

1st prize: Carlos Soria Vallecillo, Manuel Martínez-Carrasco Vallecillo (Spain)

Jury comments:

The search of an architecture that can coexist in perfect harmony with the landscape is rewarded. Special consideration is given to the use of noble materials belonging to the site and the minimum intervention that very carefully puts in order the requirements of the contest without disturbing the magnificent natural environment. Through working closely with the existing landscape, and by attaching a simple structure on to an existing. 

This project adapts to what is already there while enhancing and enriching the place further with something added in a very delicate way.This project proposes a sensitive approach to the place. The old traces of forgotten constructions are activated and put in value in the present as a support for new activity, making the visitor feel the coexistence of different times without needing a mimetic reconstruction. Congratulations!

2nd prize: Beata Momot, Nina Kempa, Karolina Jabłońska (Poland)

Jury comments:

As the work awarded with the first prize, this 2nd prize is appreciated especially for the search of a very careful and limited intervention to preserve and highlight a magnificent natural environment, resorting exclusively to the use of noble materials and a very synthetic formal order, almost abstract.

Formed by the wind and the landscape, almost hiding from the sea, this project creates a space for a theatre that is protected from the cold northern wind and will in the evening have the sunset as wonderful backdrop.This interesting and radical proposal presents a journey to connect the visitor with the landscape that surrounds it: buried areas in the rock, a path from which to contemplate the ruin from a different point of view and finally the discovery of the horizon. Congratulations!

3rd prize: Alessandro Carabini, Alice Braggion (France)

Jury comments:

This work, like the other two winners, achieves with very limited but at the same time very dissident resources, to build a project that can dialogue with the magnificent natural landscape, obtaining photographic cuts to highlight it. The use of sails that allude to the universe of the naval, although they serve to strongly mark the place chosen for the amphitheater, could affect the shows due to the wind noise. Nevertheless, without this last resource the intervention does not cease to be valid. Awareness of the wind; using its advantages by creating a phenomena visible from the very far. 

And at the same time protecting the theatre against it, through hiding in the landscape. This project shows an understanding of the specifics of the site and how to make use of it.Highly poetic and evocative proposal that goes beyond the limits of the architectural discipline to form part of a wider world, linked to the changing experience of the site. The fact of not building, but unfolding a sail, conveys the cozy feeling that the landscape is the true protagonist. Congratulations!

Honorable Mentions

Sergio Llobregat Ruiz, Joan Maravilla Toldrà (Spain)

Georgios Trikouzas, Dena Tsalaga (Greece)

Tiago Rocha, Gregory dos Santos (Portugal)

Hadrian Andreas Tombak Maduma, Apriani Kurnia Sarashayu (Italy) 

Marco Dal Lago, Giorgia Fattori (Italy)

Rui Oliveira, Raquel Santos, Pedro Costa, Simão Mariz (Portugal) 

Júlia Huff, Izabela Brettas (Brazil)

World Architecture Community is media partner for the competition. See Honorable Mentions in the competition's website. 

All images courtesy of ARKxSITE

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