The new architecture

The Viciana building, an architectural project designed by José Ángel Fernández-Llébrez Muñoz, lecturer in the Department of Architectural Projects at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), and built and completed this year in the historic centre of Valencia, has recently won three awards: first prize in the 7th Baku International Architecture Award and the NAN 2025 Award, internationally and nationally renowned competitions in the field of architecture, respectively, in addition to the award for Best New Residential Project 2023-24-25, awarded by the Territorial College of Architects of Valencia (CTAV).

Recognised by one of the most prestigious awards of the International Union of Architects

Considered one of the five most important awards coordinated by the International Union of Architects (UIA), the Baku International Architecture Award is held every two years and, in this edition, hundreds of proposals from 38 countries competed for the award. In it, the Viciana Building was recognised as the Best International Residential Project, a prize worth €2,240.

Fernández-Llébrez's creation has also been recognised by the 19th edition of the NAN Award, one of Spain's most prestigious national architecture competitions, which this year broke its participation record with more than 380 entries. The Viciana Building was named Best Multi-Family Housing in Spain.

Following both awards, this past February, the Viciana building also received recognition from the CTAV, which included it as Best New Residential Project 2023-24-25 in the travelling Architecture Exhibition presented on the 13th at the Roig Arena during the 6th edition of Architecture Night.

Finalist for the Arquitectura Plus 2025 Award and published by the most prestigious architecture magazine in the United States

In addition to the aforementioned awards, the Viciana building was also a finalist for the VIII Arquitectura Plus 2025 Award, a prominent national competition organised by Daikin, and the project was published in Architectural Record, the most prestigious and widely read magazine in the field in the United States, covering its entire 'In focus' section with a text written by one of its most prominent critics, David Cohn.

The origin: the need for a mother and her two children to live with their families in the same building and close to the city's main services

The Viciana building is a project that seeks to demonstrate that the new and the old can coexist, integrating and incorporating the value of the surrounding architectural heritage, and committing to sustainable architecture based on the principles of traditional Mediterranean architecture (introduction of courtyards, vegetation, water, sun protection, lighting and cross ventilation, etc.), aerothermal energy (there are no energy sources that produce emissions), and common or shared areas and spaces.

'The initiative stems from the need of a mother and her two children - who are independent and have their own families - to live in the same building and close to the city's main services, from health to education and administrative services,' explains Fernández-Llébrez.

'The intention, therefore, was,' he adds, 'to leave behind their residence in a low-density area on the outskirts so that the three family units could live together in the best possible way in a new urban location, thus facilitating interaction between them and their travel.'

'The project,' recalls the author, "began to take shape in 2018 under the initial premise of developing a residential building for three homes and parking on an irregular plot in the historic centre of Valencia. However, as the circumstances and characteristics of the future users were explored in greater depth, the proposal evolved into a more complex project, closer to an approach involving the superimposition of three different single-family dwellings in height."

An author's project with exceptional collaborations

The project, conceived and designed solely by Fernández-Llébrez, has also benefited from top-level collaborations. Josep Ramón Solé, professor of Structures at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and founding partner of Windmill Structural Consultants, was responsible for the structural calculations.

The installations were handled by engineer Juan Manuel Sánchez Rodríguez, Associate Lecturer in the Architectural Constructions Department at the UPV, and the renowned Estudio Agraph contributed to the project images. 'For me,' says Fernández-Llébrez, 'it is the best architectural visualisation studio in Spain.'

Alongside them, it should be noted that Remedios Martínez García was in charge of directing the archaeological excavation phase, and Alejandro Gómez Vives, Associate Lecturer in the Graphic Expression in Architecture Department at the UPV, was the author of the professional photographic report.

An outstanding professional career

An architect from the UPV with honours since 2005, José Ángel Fernández-Llébrez Muñoz received his doctorate from the UPV (Architectural Projects Department) with cum laude honours and international recognition in 2013, and was a finalist in the Caja de Arquitectos Foundation's doctoral thesis competition (also in 2013). He has been a guest lecturer at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA) and a long-term guest researcher at the School of Architecture at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), a lecturer at the School of Architecture and Polytechnics at the European University (UEV), and is currently a permanent professor of Architectural Projects at the UPV.

His proposal, Elderly Thinking-Elderly Housing, was selected at the 12th Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (BIAU XII) in the Teaching Projects category and has been featured in various publications and Conferences on teaching innovation. Among his awards, in addition to those mentioned above, he was a finalist in the 2017 and 2018 Architecture Awards of the Official Association of Architects of the Valencian Community (COACV).

In addition, his work as a researcher has been featured in architecture publications in the main international quality indexes (The Architectural Review, Nexus Network Journal, EGA, DOCOMOMO International, ZARCH, Cuaderno de Notas, Disegnare, Idee, Immagini / Sapienza Università di Roma, etc.). He is a referee/advisor for several of them.

He is also the author of the book Mestres. Arquitectura moderna en la Comunidad Valenciana (Masters. Modern Architecture in the Valencian Community), published in Spanish and English by the Arquia Foundation in 2021 and selected for the Architecture Awards of the Higher Council of Architects of Spain (CSCAE).