2017 Women in Architecture Award Winners Announced; Mexican Local Community Designs Won Juries’ Heart

The Architectural Review and the Architects' Journal just recently chose two Mexican lady architects as Women in Architecture Awardees because of their contribution in sustainable local community structure designs. Gabriela Carrillo received the Architect of the Year while Rozana Montiel got Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture.

According to Archinect, the newest Women in Architecture winners Gabriela Carrillo and Rozana Montiel impressed the judges with their talents in local community building and flexible space designs. Their works deal with all native aspects.

Carillo's Criminal Courts for Oral Trials Patzcuaro project was her winning masterpiece. Her firm practice, Taller Mauricio Rocha & Gabriela Carrillo always has a good hand in bring impressive "contemporary architectural expression" renovations.

"A walled city where the wall could be understood more as a limit, and the inner spaces could be experienced as an open town," this is how 2017 Women in Architecture's Carrillo describes her Criminal Courts building in Architecture Review statement. She made the place into a new haven for security and freedom.

On the other hand, ArchDaily also shared interesting facts about the win of Rozana Montiel for 2017 Women in Architecture Moira Gemmill Prize. She snagged it with her notable "urban rehabilitation and low-cost interventions that engage with local people."
 
Women in Architecture juries commended her Veracruz Cancha Sports Court, San Pablo Unidad Habitacional Housing Complex, and Tepoztan House. All of other Women in Architecture winner's projects are community-based and it all caters to the local people's immediate need.

"All architecture is political. We can read in daily spaces the political priorities of our society," this is Montiel's words about her monumental architectural works. "Architecture has the power to shape civic behavior because, more than laying bricks, it lays the founding principles of public and social exchanges," she added.

To end, 2017 Women in Architecture juries chose Gabriela Carrillo and Rozana Montiel because of their sensitivity to Mexican local setting. Their wins will surely inspire them more to endlessly contribute more amazing structures in the future.