Veredicte [Cinquè Premi Europeu Manuel de Solà-Morales]

12-2025 www.dur.upc.edu The Fifth Manuel de Solà-Morales European Prize 2025 Veredicte · Veredicto · Verdict The Reading of the Verdict: ETSAB, 19th March 2025, Barcelona Han Meyer Virginie Picon-Lefebvre Naiara Montero Viar Álvaro Clua VEREDICT 21 The jury of the fifth Manuel de Sola-Morales European Prize for the best PhD thesis on Urbanism was confronted with a record number of 68 PhD theses submitted to the call. We were surprised and challenged by this large number of theses, and by the wide range of subjects, themes and regional backgrounds, from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean and from the United Kingdom to Bulgaria and Poland. It shows that urbanism, that is, the city and urban life, is a subject that is deeply rooted and explored in universities throughout Europe. As a result of the wide range of countries in which the theses were developed, there was also considerable variety in the interpretations of what is urbanism. Many theses were based on urban studies, with a focus on social, political or governance-related issues, and the participation of local people. Another group of theses addressed the large-scale dynamics and changes in economy and transport, and tried to define the consequences for spatial development, often at a regional and geographical scale. Finally, of course, climate change was identified as a growing, appealing topic for city research, including questions like adaptation to changing water systems, heat stress and the energy transition. For this edition of the Manuel de Solà-Morales Prize, the jury decided to emphasise and encourage approaches that focus on the core discipline of urbanism as the knowledge, analysis and design of the city’s spatial form and structure, on the understanding that it creates the essential conditions for urban life, and can be used, accepted, enjoyed and loved by people. The jury aimed to highlight that one of the keys and special strengths of our discipline is finding ways in which design can lead to innovative solutions for urban space. We were glad to discover that many submissions shared this idea of what urbanism is about. We noted that a wide variety of themes and topics had been examined within this common framework: studies on the historic development of cities, monographs on the work of excellent urbanists, and a modest number of theses that show how design can work as a form of exploration, as a voyage of discovery, to identify new possibilities for urban compositions, with new conditions for economic, social and cultural life. After conveying this essential approach and quality selection criteria, the jury worked intensively to review all the submitted theses. During the process, the exceptional value of the work was revealed, which enriched our vision of the field. We shared clear optimism on the value of research developed in European universities. Finally, after careful deliberation, the jury unanimously selected three finalists, four special mentions and one first prize. 12-2025 www.dur.upc.edu The Fifth Manuel de Solà-Morales European Prize 2025 22 CLAUDIA CAVALLO Title: Ignazio Gardella. Costruire nel costruito. Dialettica della storia carattere dell’architettura [Ignazio Gardella: Building Within The Built: Dialectics Of History, Character Of Architecture] Supervisor: Antonella Gallo (IUAV) Co-Supervisors: Raffaella Neri (POLIMI), Maria Grazia Eccheli (UNIFI), Andrea Iorio (IUAV) University: Università IUAV di Venezia (IUAV) The jury considered Claudia Cavallo’s thesis highly stimulating and of great interest. It is part of a series of theses on Italian urban design architects of the twentieth century. The thesis focuses on the understanding of reconstruction after the war and the rewriting of the existing city as the unveiling of essential features of a living space. However, it is also a reflection on the meaning of Gardella’s architecture.The research takes the theme of ‘building on the built’ as an intellectual attitude and a paradigmatic condition of the project. This is illustrated through the study of Ignazio Gardella’s works. Reconstruction implies attention to existing buildings and the ancient part of the city as active elements of the composition. For the author, a reconstruction project enables operational reflections on architecture questions.This study’s methodology seamlessly integrates two distinct approaches. The first is based on archival research through different sources and state-ofthe-art knowledge. The second critically redraws Gardella’s works, to break down the system that he used and compare design hypotheses. The jury would like to award the distinction of FINALIST to three doctoral theses, described here in alphabetical order: The comparison between the design and the actual stage of the reconstruction is particularly compelling and serves as an excellent example of the type of research by or on design that the jury was seeking. As the italian architect adopts an approach to reconstruction that is difficult to classify and understand, Claudia Cavallo has named Gardella’s proposals for different conditions of the city, for example, reconstruction projects are dubbed ‘strongholds’ or ‘new soils’. She noticed that Gardella’s attitude to the ancient city is very far from the Enlightenment concept of the monument as an isolated object. Gardella’s project creates a new relationship between monuments and urban fabric that establishes a form of continuity.The second part of the thesis focuses on the Contemporary Art Pavilion (PAC) in Milan, which Claudia Cavallo considers to be a manifesto. She follows the ‘myriad sketches, design versions’ of the PAC. The project’s vastly different scales provide valuable insight into Gardella’s creative process. 12-2025 www.dur.upc.edu The Fifth Manuel de Solà-Morales European Prize 2025 23 DOMENICO CRISTOFALO Title: La cerimonia del comporre. Metodi e tecniche di composizione nei progetti urbani di Gianugo Polesello [Ceremony of Composing: Methods and Technics of Composing in Gianugo Polesello Urban Projects] Supervisor: Carlo Moccia (POLIBA) University: Politecnico di Bari Domenico Cristofalo’s thesis is also part of a series of thesis studies on the work of Italian architects dealing with the existing city construction in the twentieth century. The origin of the thesis is the break in continuity between two antinomian ideas of the city (historical and modern). The built heritage of the twentieth century is considered problematic, especially in the suburbs where the city expands into the countryside with with new buildings with no relationships with the surrounding area. The research is about Gianugo Polesello’s work as a case study, to understand the principles and reasons for his intervention proposal for the city. Polesello was a professor at IUAV in Venice and an architect based in Udine for whom urban composition requires all possible knowledge and techniques from mathematics to psychology. The hypothesis of the thesis is that the compositions are arranged by ‘means of architecture’ and the theory of the city is produced by designing the city. The thesis aims to approach research on the sphere of design and is based on the use of ‘appropriate graphic language’ to compare a selection of Polesello’s projects. The redrawing of the composition is associated with an understanding of the concepts used by the architect. Even though the abstract character of these designs leaves aside the question of social conditions and construction, we consider that they are a very good way of understanding the arrangement of meanings in the design process. 12-2025 www.dur.upc.edu The Fifth Manuel de Solà-Morales European Prize 2025 24 KRISTINE C.V. HOLTEN-ANDERSEN Title: Med vandog landskab som aktører i byudvikling: Kortet i mødet mellem planlægningspraksisser [Embracing waterand landscapes as actors in urban development: Maps in assembly of planning practices] Supervisors: Jonna Majgaard Krarup (Royal Danish Academy), Kristine Jensen (Denmark), Katrina Wiberg (AARCH). University: The Royal Danish Academy The thesis offers a compelling and innovative exploration of the intersection between urban planning and landscape architecture within the framework of Denmark’s ‘wet geographies’. The jury considers it a remarkable example of ‘action research’. It demonstrates how design can serve as a rigorous, effective method for high-value research and vice versa. It highlights the potential of interdisciplinary collaboration to deepen our understanding of complex urban waterscapes. The study investigates how urbanists’ and landscape architects’ methodologies can facilitate the re-integration of water within the urban environment, ultimately shaping urban form and functions. Grounded in the premise that the urban is inherently and necessarily entangled with water – not only spatially and symbolically but also metabolically – the thesis challenges traditional notions of water as a passive element. It presents water as an active agent in urban formation, operating through intricate interactions between human and non-human actors. To assess this dynamic relationship, the thesis deploys a solid and coherent abductive approach, drawing insights from three map-centred collaborative workshops. These workshops engage with case studies at varying scales, spanning municipal planning practices, private landscape architectural strategies and participatory design. The jury commends the thesis for its significant contribution to the field on three levels: informative, through an in-depth examination of water management theories and practices and the deployment of valuable cartographic evidence; formative, by fostering stakeholder engagement, enabling visualisation of complex urban landscapes, and supporting advanced research collaboration on the field; and normative, by advocating for the reintegration of water dynamics within the intricate frameworks that challenge contemporary urbanism. 12-2025 www.dur.upc.edu The Fifth Manuel de Solà-Morales European Prize 2025 25 IGNACIO GALÁN Title: (Re)occupy the ruin: Unveiling the capacity of vernacular heritage for the regeneration of depopulated settlements in mountain territories under transformation. A study case of the Spanish Central Pyrenees Supervisors: Yves Schoonjans (KU Leuven) Co-Supervisor: Gisèle Gantois (KU Leuven) University: University KU Leuven According to the jury, Ignacio Galàn’s thesis (Re)occupy the ruin is a wonderful example of research-by-design in the field of urbanism and deserves special attention. The thesis focuses on a rural, derelict village in the Pyrenees. The first reaction might be ‘What does this have to do with urbanism?’ However, this thesis is an interesting and original urbanistic study for two reasons. First, it clearly shows how the rural countryside has become part of the urban world – not only as a provider of food, but also and increasingly as part of urban lifestyles, as an area for recreation and contemplation, and as an area for experiments with new sustainable building techniques and ecological food production. In many respects, the rural environment has become a laboratory for the urban world. Galán describes the rural landscape of the Pyrenees as a landscape full of important cultural heritage that is also very vulnerable. It is threatened by thoughtless use of the landscape for new infrastructures, mining, wind farms and so on. The question in this respect is not how to maintain all the historic elements and avoid any change. The question, addressed by Ignacio Galán, is how the vernacular heritage of this landscape The jury would like to award the title of SPECIAL MENTION to four doctoral theses, described below in alphabetical order: as a cultural value can play a central role in the adaptation of the landscape and villages to a new urban reality. Second, Galán’s methodological approach is important and can also be applied to the big city. The rural village in the Pyrenees functions as a laboratory for developing and testing a research method. In this method, the drawing plays a central role: analytical drawings of the territory, of individual buildings, ground plans, sections and perspectives all play a key role in the research itself, to understand the specific spatial character of the site. Design functions as a way to explore new possibilities, testing new arrangements of buildings and open space. These drawings also play a key role in communication with local people, homeowners, new and former inhabitants and farmers. They develop a narrative cartography of the village and the region. The drawings include local traditional knowledge and function as a way of communicating with experts in disciplines like ecology and building technology. Finally, they create new perspectives for reorganisation of the built fabric as a condition for life and local economy in the future. In short, Ignacio Galán’s thesis is an exemplary piece of urbanistic work. 12-2025 www.dur.upc.edu The Fifth Manuel de Solà-Morales European Prize 2025 26 MINH QUANG NGUYEN Title: Forest and water urbanism to adapt to global warming: a case study in Central Vietnam Supervisor: Kelly Shannon (KU Leuven) Co-Supervisor: Bruno De Meulder (KU Leuven) University: University KU Leuven Minh Quang Nguyen’s thesis can be considered part of a series of thesis studies at KU Leuven that focus on new arrangements for water management in and combined with a changing urban context. The thesis is an example of the Leuven ‘school’. It is a very good example of a piece of research that addresses the complexity of the water system as an assignment for urban design. As a jury, we want to express our admiration for the attention in the research to the different scales of the water system and to the possibilities of combining the transformation of the water system with a necessary transformation of the urban environment. Focusing on a section of the Vietnamese landscape from the mountains in the west to the coastline in the east, Nguyen shows convincingly how the waters in different parts of this section are interrelated and how they influence each other, and how a water management strategy should include these interrelationships and the complexity of the system as a whole. Moreover, the merit of the thesis is that it illustrates how a new arrangement of the water system can function as leverage for new urban development: it can prevent urban development where it is not desirable, and it can stimulate new types of land use and new urban arrangements in other places. In this vision, adaptation of the water system because of climate change is not only a way to decrease flood risk, but also a way of creating new perspectives for urban vitality. 12-2025 www.dur.upc.edu The Fifth Manuel de Solà-Morales European Prize 2025 27 PAU BAJET Title: Time Catalysts: Research by Design in the Loose Ends of Barcelona Supervisors: Florian Beigel and Philip Christou (LondonMet) Co-Supervisors: Matthew Barac (LondonMet) and Pere Joan Ravetllat (UPC) University: London Metropolitan University The jury wishes to highlight this thesis’s distinct architectural approach to the city. It is a study that explicitly incorporates materiality, attention to strategic detail and even considerations of constructability within the urban discourse. Secondly, the jury appreciated the engagement with the topic of ‘time’ in the thesis. It is considered not only as a passive physical dimension that impacts urban history, but also as an active force that is capable of shaping future architectural and urban form, thus fostering processes of appropriation and transformation. Thirdly, the thesis’s approach to knowledge through the creative design of a number of ‘time catalysts’ is particularly compelling when it is applied to an unexpected case study of one of the unfinished, peripheral edges of the well-studied city of Barcelona. In the research, this neglected and banal place becomes a creative laboratory where theoretical and critical arguments are applied by means of measurable architecture and urban artefacts. The proposed solutions are not aimed at providing a definite or perfect solution for the place, but rather at testing possible futures for its diachronic transformation. The jury considers this a relevant approach to the field of urban research, as it contributes innovatively to a rich line of studies that illuminate creative strategies for more open and meaningful futures of the city’s form. 12-2025 www.dur.upc.edu The Fifth Manuel de Solà-Morales European Prize 2025 28 PEDRO VASCO DE MELO MARTINS Title: A Persistência da Forma Urbana Leitura das pré-existências na construção da cidade portuguesa [The Persistence of urban form: Interpreting the pre-existences in the construction of the Portuguese city] Supervisor: Sérgio Padrão Fernandes (ULisboa) Co-Supervisor: Paulo Jorge Garcia Pereira (ULisboa) University: Universidade de Lisboa The jury considers that Pedro Vasco de Melo Martin’s thesis is a very good example of research in the field of urbanism and deserves special attention. The research is based on the unsustainability of indefinite and unlimited urban expansion. The thesis focuses on the relationships between ancient built forms and the time after, which the author calls the ‘modern movement crisis’. Following the many authors since the mid-twentieth century who sought to understand the genesis of the urban object, Pedro Vasco is in search of the rule that led to its production. He considers the urban form as the result of a ‘constant process of construction, maintenance and reuse’. The hypothesis of the thesis is that an understanding of the complex nature of urban form can be achieved through the study ‘of urban form’s whole, global, evolutionary process in comparison with other similar form(s) in the same cultural context’. He aims to identify pre-existing urban forms that are capable of ‘putting the past, (history), present and future (…) in dialogue’. The methodology is clearly related to design as he focuses on several Portuguese cities and produces comparative images to identify their compositional principles as architectural or urban types. The research has an encyclopaedic dimension and the documentation and drawings are fascinating tools to help us approach a city’s cultural heritage and how to make it visible. 12-2025 www.dur.upc.edu The Fifth Manuel de Solà-Morales European Prize 2025