AMA Studio, Winner of the 2025 Peña Ganchegui Prize for Young Basque Architecture

2025 October 16

• The jury praised the coherence and subtlety of their career, which demonstrates a sensitive attention to detail and place, intertwining research with professional practice.
• The award carries a cash prize of €6,000 and is aimed at architects with fewer than ten years of experience who have obtained their degree or carry out their professional activity in the Basque Country.
• The Mugak/ Biennial hosts an exhibition featuring the finalist entries of this 5th edition, on view until 30 November in the lobby of the Basque Institute of Architecture.

16 | 10 | 2025

The architecture studio AMA, founded by Jaime Gutiérrez Armendariz and Itziar Molinero Miranda, has been named the winner of the fifth edition of the Peña Ganchegui Prize for Young Basque Architecture. This biennial award was created in 2017 by the Peña Ganchegui Archive, in collaboration with the Basque Government’s Department of Housing, with the aim of recognizing architects with less than ten years of experience who, having trained or established their practice in the Basque Autonomous Community, contribute to the promotion, development, and consolidation of a high-quality architectural culture.

The award ceremony, presided over by Denis Itxaso, the Basque Government’s Minister for Housing and Urban Agenda, took place at the Basque Institute of Architecture in San Sebastián’s Old Town. Following the ceremony—held within the framework of the Mugak/ International Architecture Biennial of the Basque Country—the exhibition of the finalist works was inaugurated. The event brought together institutional representatives and professionals from the fields of culture and architecture in the Basque Country.

During his address, Itxaso highlighted “the winners’ commitment to and rigor in the pursuit of quality architecture,” emphasizing that the Vice-Ministry of Housing promotes this award to “support Basque architecture, and particularly young architecture, which is shaping future trends in design, architecture, and urban planning, and outlining the evolution of our cities for the years and decades to come.”

He further underlined that “architecture is not only a response to urgency, but also a proposal for hope,” adding that “architectural quality matters, young talent deserves visibility, and the culture of the project is inseparable from housing policy.” He also reminded attendees that “social architecture is not a lesser architecture, but an essential one,” reaffirming the role of Basque architecture as a driver of transformation and social commitment.

For her part, Rocío Peña, Director of the Peña Ganchegui Archive, emphasized “the quality and prestige of this edition’s jury, whose expert insight has allowed for a rigorous and sensitive evaluation of the entries.” She noted that, despite a smaller number of submissions compared to previous editions, “all of them demonstrated an outstanding level of quality, confirming that young Basque architecture is experiencing a fertile and promising moment.” In this regard, she announced that the Archive will continue working to give visibility to emerging trajectories, convinced that “within them lies the future of our architectural culture.”

The jury, composed for this edition of Carme Pinós, Begoña Fernández-Shaw, and Ángel Martínez García-Posada, praised the coherence and delicacy of AMA’s trajectory, which demonstrates a sensitive attention to precise detail and to place. The jury also commended Gutiérrez and Molinero’s desire to interweave research and practice, expressed through ephemeral, lightweight, and flexible projects in dialogue with diverse contexts, enriching larger environments through small but meaningful gestures.

Among AMA’s most notable works are the ephemeral interventions “Dirdirak” and “Garabiak”, both installed along the Bilbao estuary during the Gau Zuria Festival, as well as the pavilion “Etxenoi”, winner of the competition to design a temporary architectural structure for the 5th edition of the Mugak/ Biennial in Bilbao, whose inauguration is scheduled just a few hours after the Peña Ganchegui Prize ceremony.
The Mugak/ International Architecture Biennial of the Basque Country also hosts the exhibition of finalist projects in the lobby of the Basque Institute of Architecture, open to visitors until 30 November.

In addition to the winning entry, there were four other finalists, among whom the jury awarded a special mention to the proposal by Borja Martínez, of Interplay Studio. The jury recognized “an outstanding collection of projects developed through a rich series of competitions, demonstrating professional competence, formal talent, strategic value, and an intelligent conceptual discourse.” His most prominent work to date is the Polish Pavilion at Expo Osaka 2025.

The remaining finalists were Xabier Artola (for “an appealing formal sensibility and a clear intention to establish connections with community and landscape values”); Sara Enríquez, of Lokuluxka Studio (for “the elegant adaptation of bold interventions to their surroundings, both materially and perceptively”); and Mikel Ortiz de Eribe, of Eitzen Studio (for “the careful attention to detail that lends interest to diverse projects within a framework of regulatory rigidity”).

The Peña Ganchegui Prize carries a €6,000 cash award and takes its name from the architect Luis Peña Ganchegui (Oñati, 1926 – San Sebastián, 2009), the foremost figure in Basque architecture during the second half of the 20th century. Founder of the School of Architecture of San Sebastián, he was the author of landmark works such as the Vista Alegre Tower (Zarautz, 1959), the Plaza de la Trinidad (San Sebastián, 1963), the Church of San Francisco (Vitoria, 1968), and the Plaza del Tenis (San Sebastián, 1976), which serves as the prelude to Eduardo Chillida’s “Peine del Viento.”

Held biennially, the award was created in 2017 by the Peña Ganchegui Archive in collaboration with the Basque Government’s Department of Housing, and is open to architects with fewer than ten years of experience who obtained their degree or practice in the Basque Country.
In this fifth edition, 11 applications were submitted, involving 17 architects from three different schools, most of whom currently practice in the Basque Country.

All information regarding the Peña Ganchegui Prize for Young Basque Architecture is available on the official website: premio.ganchegui.com