The Architects’ Association of Catalonia awards local and international development cooperation grants for architecture and urban planning, which this year are being awarded for the sixth time. Of the ten projects submitted, an evaluation was made of their compliance with the basic rules, the architectural proposition, the use of local materials and their level of social participation.

The grants, which amount to a total of €48,000, were awarded to the following organizations:

LOCAL:

· Arquitectura sense fronteres
Project: Towards social inclusion and access to decent housing
Head architect: Carles Bonet Pijoan
Amount awarded: €3,500

· Base-A
Project: Punt Raval! Improving living conditions
Head architect: Antonio M. Solanas Cànovas
Amount awarded: €3,500

· Urbanitas Berlín-Barcelona
Project: Arxiu Alícia. Childhood, experience and public spaces
Head architect: Amaya Martínez Marcos
Amount awarded: €3,000


INTERNATIONAL:

· Amics de Boulembou
Project: Teachers’ housing in Boulembou
Head architect: Lurdes Ferran Vilar
Amount awarded: €4,500







· Amics del Nepal
Project: Awasuka. Improving living conditions and earthquake-proof reconstruction in Bhimphedi
Head architect: Mònica Sans Duran
Amount awarded: 6,500 

· Associació Nasco Foundation
Project: Strengthening the Sawla community through support for education, ICT tools and local cooperatives
Head architect: Berta Marin Pascal
Amount awarded: €6,500

· Fundació Foundawtion
Project: School in Thionck Essyl in Senegal
Head architect: David Garcia Martínez
Amount awarded: €7,000

· Fundació Talibés
Project: Construction of a classroom wing in the rural town of Ndangane in Senegal
Head architect:  Anna Altemir Montaner
Amount awarded: €6,500

· NGO Kasamu Aku Projectes (Solidaritat amb Casamance)
Project: Reconstruction of classrooms for the socio-educational support of the Cabrousse nursery school
Head architect: José Gaspar de Valenzuela de Ros
Amount awarded: €4,000

· Open Cultural Center
Project: OCCycling
Head architect: Maria Alejandre Galiano
Amount awarded: €3,000

These grants reflect the Association’s determination to showcase the social function of architecture and to devote 0.7% of the annual ordinary budget of its governing bodies to social projects..