The Pladur Awards celebrate innovation and emerging talent

The 34th edition of the Pladur® Iberian Contest for Construction Solutions culminated in an event that rewarded the creativity and technical rigor of the sector’s future professionals.

The city of Valencia hosted the Pladur® Awards gala, an established event in the academic calendar that this year brought together students and professors from 35 schools and universities in Spain and Portugal. The contest’s objective is to recognize the most innovative proposals from the new generations of architects and designers.

During the event, the winners were announced from among the 265 projects submitted, which were selected from a total of nearly 1000 enrolled students. The participation numbers highlight the interest generated by these types of platforms that connect the university environment with the professional sector.

The challenge for this 34th edition invited students to design the renovation of a historically significant space, transforming it into a cultural, artistic, or social center. This type of brief requires a delicate balance between respecting heritage and implementing a functional, contemporary program.

Throughout the process, students must develop a proposal that ranges from conceptual creativity to technical rigor. This includes researching regulations, studying materials, and, increasingly, applying methodologies such as BIM (Building Information Modeling) for comprehensive project management.

The contest serves as a visibility platform for students, whose work is evaluated by a jury of active professionals. This allows them to go beyond the classroom and have their first contact with the demands of the professional world, a key aspect at the start of their careers.

The high quality of the proposals and the large number of participants in this edition confirm the initiative’s role as a link between academic training and the construction industry, highlighting the technical and conceptual preparation of future architects.