Spanish architect Alberto Campo Baeza has been selected as the recipient of The Daylight Award for 2024. The Daylight Award aims to understand the positive impacts of natural light on architecture and daily life, aiming to enhance the environment and quality of life through the use of daylight. Established by the Danish philanthropic foundations Villum Fonden and VELUX FONDEN, along with the Swiss Velux Stiftung, the award has celebrated architectural excellence since 1980. Since 2012, it has expanded to include a research category, with awards presented biennially for outstanding contributions in each field. Each category winner receives a prize of €100,000.
This year’s jury consisted of Juhani Pallasmaa (jury chair), Dorte Mandrup, Iwan Baan, Yvonne De Kort, Russell Foster, Michael Balick, and Gerd Folkers. They selected Alberto Campo Baeza for his exemplary uses of architectural light, which employs directed and focused beams to evoke a sense of focus, drama, and significance. The true distinctiveness of his work lies in its ability to heighten our awareness of daylight’s presence. His modern white buildings, reminiscent of the whitewashed structures of the Mediterranean, inspire early modernism and make viewers appreciate daylight as a precious gift, highlighting its fundamental importance for life and human culture.
In addition to his numerous archetypically simple and focused houses, Campo Baeza has also designed a variety of buildings, including museums like Andalusia’s Museum of Memory and the recently completed Robert Olnick Pavilion at the Magazzino Museum in New York, Caja Granada Savings Bank, a sports hall for Francisco de Vitoria University in Madrid, Almería Cathedral Square, and several office buildings. These projects share a common goal: to elevate the architectural experience through abstraction and simplicity. His commitment to an essential style that often evokes a calm and sacred atmosphere offers a valuable alternative to today’s materialistic and consumer-driven architecture.
Past recipients of The Daylight Award in the architecture category include Steven Holl (2016), Hiroshi Sambuichi (2018), Juha Leiviskä (2020), and Grafton Architects (2022). Previous winners in daylighting excellence also include Jørn Utzon (1980) and Peter Zumthor (2010).
