Jaime Micha and Alan Micha participated in the fourth edition of the Premio Félix Candela, a competition aimed at young architects that encourages reflection on the discipline through a more open and speculative approach. For the office, these types of platforms represent an opportunity to test ideas, engage with peers, and expand the field of exploration beyond the constraints of a built project.

In this context, the project Ojuela: A Community Dream proposes an approach to inhabitation grounded in what already exists. Located within a former mining settlement, the proposal begins with a careful reading of its historical and material layers, recognizing them as an active base from which to imagine new forms of collective organization.

The project articulates a new settlement configured over what is already built, integrating ruins, topography, and contemporary structures into a single system. Through a composition that alternates between elements anchored to the ground and others that emerge vertically, the proposal seeks to establish a balance between permanence and transformation, between memory and projection.

The project was recognized as a finalist in this edition, consolidating itself as an exploration that understands architecture as a tool to reconfigure complex contexts through time, landscape, and preexistence.

You can read an essay we wrote about the proposal here.