Professor Javier Cenicacelaya, 2014 Rafael Manzano Architecture Prize

Javier Cenicacelaya, professor of Architectural Composition at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and partnership architect Íñigo Saloña have received the '2014 Rafael Manzano Classical Architecture and Restoration of Monuments Prize', from the Chicago Driehaus Foundation. In coming to their decision, the jury took into consideration "the work undertaken over decades defending and putting into practice architecture that is more aware of its context and of the needs of its inhabitant, being capable of integrating local tradition and classical language into modernity". The award carries a 50,000 euro prize.

The two architects have been visiting lecturers in the Institute for the Arts and the Humanities at the John Paul Getty Foundation in Los Angeles; at the University of Miami, where professor Cenicacelaya rose to the position of Dean; at the British Academy in Rome; and at the Technological Institute of Monterrey. Javier Cenicacelaya, moreover, has an MA from Brookes University in England (UK), and MSc from the University of Oxford, and a PhD from the University of Navarra. Both have given conferences at a number of universities in Europe and America. Founded in 1988, the international 'Composición Arquitectónica Art & Architecture' architecture journal has become an international reference in contemporary classical architecture and in the return to the tradition of architecture. They currently edit the 'DPArquitectura' journal.

The work of these architects has basically been carried out in Bilbao, where they founded their studio in 1983. Amongst their most outstanding works is the La Rigada Rural Centre (Musques), the Multiuse Hall at the Colegio Sagrada Familia in Derio, the Durango Cultural Centre, and their contribution to the reconstruction of the Rue Laeken in Brussels and of the Government Building of the Basque Province of Bizkaia (Bilbao). Also, highlighted during their time in Florida in the United States are works such as the Church of Saint John Neumann in Miami and dwellings in Alys Beach.

Their work has been exhibited in various places such as the Fondation Pour L'Architecture in Brussels, the Triennale di Bologna, the Prince's Foundation in London, or the Venice Biennial, amongst others, and have received numerous awards throughout their professional careers, highlighted amongst which are the Colegio de Arquitectos Vasco-Navarro Awards (1991, 2003, 2007), the City of Burgos Architecture Award (1992), the European Prize for the Reconstruction of the City of Brussels (1992 and 1995), the National Builders Council of America (1997) and the Charter Award of San Francisco, (CNU 2003), to which this latest honour can be added.