Cister's reception center for homeless women, made by the architects César Vivas and Cristian Vivas, has been awarded with the prestigious National Prize of Architecture in 2024, awarded by CSCAE Consell Superior dels Col·legis d’Arquitectes (Superior Council of Architect Schools) in the Profession Award category. This award highlights the professionalism and ethics manifested by this project.

The building, found in Císter street in Barcelona city and promoted by Barcelona’s city hall throughout BIMSA, is a reception center designed specifically to take in and reintegrate homeless women, with hospitality, by offering not only assistance and assessment with social, labour and education resources, but also doctors and health advice, in order to reconstruct their lives, autonomously.

The building’s design emphasises interior and exterior common areas, which facilitates social interaction for the residents by offering terraces and a garden. The main constructive material used has been wood which has gone through industrial systems, offering a positive energetic reaction.

Besides designing the building, Vivas Architects have been the head of the construction management. However, the execution management has been under UTE’s orders, which is established by a Technical Architecture department with Joan Olona and AT3 Oller-Peña being their main integrants.