In the same year that the Serra Henriques Foundation implements the Traditional Architecture Prize in Portugal, it has the honor of announcing that the international jury has distinguished the work of portuguese architect José Baganha with the 2017 Rafael Manzano Award, under the High Patronage of His Excellency the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
"José Baganha's projects are the technical substantiation of someone that carefully observed and studied the great lessons of Architecture. They are buildings in which moderation reigns, being stripped of excesses and meaningless supplements. These represent a "way of being", an identity and an integration with landscape and nature, in its broadest terms: physical, social, economical, cultural, etc. Nonetheless, this interest over traditional architecture does not mean a lack of interest or ignorance regarding the current demands in terms of comfort or new technologies. José Baganha is knowledgeable of the present moment, the new materials and the new techniques, to which he resorts when he so considers pertinent. His work is (as it always has been) in tune with the principles of sustainable development, in his care regarding the site's characteristics, in the broadest sense of the term, and masterfully inscribed in the natural or urban landscape. In addition to his skill, freshness, hope and optimism, his work also shows us the optimism that this new Portugal is bringing to the rest of Europe."