Last week was a week filled with fun, but also with achievements. Castillo Arquitectos was awarded the Design Excellence Award in the Mixed-Use Project Category 2025 by The Urban Guild, for their work on Plaza del Mercado Flats in Las Catalinas.
This award celebrates not only the talent and vision of architect Eduardo Castillo and his team, but also the core values that have guided Town from the beginning: people-centered urbanism, timeless design, and respect for place.
The winning project, Plaza del Mercado Flats, brings together homes and local businesses around one of the most vibrant plazas in Town. The design creates a gentle dialogue between architecture, public space, and everyday life, showing how good design can foster connection and belonging.
If you enjoy reading about architecture and want to understand more about the design principles that have shaped Town, this blog is ideal for you. You can read it here. It dives deeper into the architectural character of this project, from building proportions to human scale, the dialogue between the façades and Plaza Mercado, the different uses and its context, how the shaded galleries respond to the climate and frame the entrances to the commercial spaces, and the meaning of the award itself.
This is not the first time Las Catalinas has been recognized internationally for its design excellence. The Town previously received the CNU Charter Award in 2022 and the Urban Guild Design Excellence Award in 2020. Each of these recognitions highlights the same underlying truth: that architecture and urban design have the power to shape not only buildings but the quality of life itself. Las Catalinas is living proof of that, and anyone who has spent even a season living here can attest to it.