Today is the day to discover the finalists of ODA2022: the award for the best Spanish-language architecture. Our expert jury—meaning you, our readers—has selected 15 of your favorite projects from nearly 1,000 architectural works built across Latin America and Spain.

This award has become a true tradition, now in its 14th edition. It is an invitation extended to all our readers to recognize the works published during 2021 that inspired them and represent the identity of their local contexts in a globalized planet, shaping the way architecture is made in Latin America and Spain within an increasingly heterogeneous and multicultural world.

Starting today, and until next Wednesday, March 30, at 11:59 PM (GMT -3), you can explore each of the finalists in detail and vote for the work that best represents the Spanish-language architecture that inspires us, defines us, and leaves a mark on us. Discover all the finalist projects below.

The 2022 Obra del Año Award is brought to you by Dornbracht, renowned for its leading architectural designs, which can be found internationally in bathrooms and kitchens.

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The Mictlán Pavilion Competition was established as part of the activities for the 2018 Mictlán Festival, an annual event held in the municipality of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. This event aims to celebrate the Day of the Dead traditions in this municipality, particularly along the Cajititlán waterfront.

For the competition, participants designed an intervention for the San Juan Evangelista pier in Tlajomulco, which served as a transitional space within the Day of the Dead Festival installations.

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The 2018 CEMEX Pavilion competition was conceived to provide the student community of Guadalajara with an opportunity and a voice to express their aspirations, interests, concerns, and critiques of the profession, channeling them into an intervention within the courtyard of a heritage house in the city's historic center, which functions as a workshop and cultural center. The event is organized by eSCALA, CENTROmx, and TEMAdc—groups made up of students and alumni of the Centro Universitario de Arte, Arquitectura y Diño of the Universidad de Guadalajara—and the winners of the 2018 CEMEX Pavilion Competition, which included one first-place and two second-place projects, were recently published.

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Each year, the ArchDaily Curatorial team reviews the projects that resonated most with our readers, identifying the architectural trends and design approaches that captured the greatest attention throughout the year. Across our local sites – ArchDaily Brasil and ArchDaily en Español – residential architecture remains the most popular category, with projects built in Latin America standing out year after year.

This year's selection of Best Latin American Houses brings together both renovations and ground-up projects, covering reinterpretations of local construction techniques and innovative architectural responses. The works are set in a wide range of contexts, from dense urban environments to rural and coastal landscapes.

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How relevant is the use of color in architecture? Throughout history, we find various scenarios where color takes centre stage in its integration with the architectural work. Nowadays this is no exception. This is because colour is a medium that can be used to provoke deep and immediate emotions and reactions in the person observing. Because of this, colour plays an important role in the architectural reading, as it has the power to clarify the components that make it up or, on the contrary, to change the perception of the work or space.

The following list shows various Latin American housing projects that have had a particular approach to color in their composition. In them, we see the conception of color as the integrator of the work, or as a means of enhancing a particular element, be it interior or exterior.

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More than 5000 new projects published throughout 2021 make ArchDaily the largest online architecture library in the world. ArchDaily Curatorial Team researches, contacts offices, prepares, and delivers the built projects in the world on a daily basis, with the objective of providing inspiration, knowledge, and tools to our users who take part in the creation of better built environments.