Learn Why This Tiny Spanish Studio Just Won Architecture’s Biggest Prize

The Pritzker Prize, the Nobel Prize of architecture, tends to honor solo acts—Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, I.M Pei, Norman Foster. Architects who build grand manifestos in cities around the world. Among this august group is now RCR Arquitectes, a tiny studio in Olot, Spain, in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

The trio of Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, and Ramón Vilalta stand out for a focus on small-scale, provincial design—the anti-starchitect. Since founding their firm in 1988, they have mostly worked in and around northern Catalonia. They have designed a running track in their home city; a kindergarten in Besalú, a nearby village that dates to the Middle Ages; a park in Bersu, a city of 4,000 overlooking the Mediterranean. One of the longest-distance projects that the studio has completed is a cooking school in Nègrepelisse, a four-hour trip into southern France. Here are eight projects that illustrate their extreme local approach.