![Self-construction of the Community Kitchen with local materials provided by the inhabitants Self-construction of the Community Kitchen with local materials provided by the inhabitants](https://cloudinary.royalacademy.org.uk/royal-academy/image/upload/c_fill,cs_tinysrgb,dn_72,f_auto,fl_progressive.keep_iptc,w_1280,h_720,ar_16:9/kd2gv5pwy7ftum1msdzv.jpg)
RA Dorfman Prize nominee COMUNAL
COMUNAL is a working group based in Mexico that collaborates integrally with organized collectives in the design, defense and self-production of the habitat.
![Participatory design workshop: dimensioning scale 1:1 Participatory design workshop: dimensioning scale 1:1](https://cloudinary.royalacademy.org.uk/royal-academy/image/upload/c_limit,cs_tinysrgb,dn_72,f_auto,fl_progressive.keep_iptc,w_850/hswbknx7nmlieoicbt6q.jpg)
Project: Community Kitchen. Project in collaboration with the inhabitants of Loma Bonita and Cocina CoLaboratorio. Location: Loma Bonita, Chiapas. Mexico.
Meet COMUNAL
COMUNAL is a working group based in Mexico that collaborates integrally with organized collectives in the design, defense and self-production of the habitat. They act from the complex vision of the Social Production and Management of the Habitat [SP&MH], an ethical-political position that recognizes the habitat as a self-managing social process based on cooperation and participation as a direct action to cultivate the freedom to inhabit and the common response-ability.
Their collaborative practice has led them to reject what they call “architecture of patriarchy”: a hegemonic and disabling practice that stems from a racist, capitalist, and colonial vision of modernity. Instead, they embrace the transformative idea that we all have the creative, epistemic, affective and organizational agency to design and produce our habitat.
The Awards jury was impressed by their innovative approach to working with others to re-imagine what an architect can offer to the communities they work within.
Gallery
Project: Social Reconstruction of the Habitat in Ixtepec. Project in collaboration with Ixtepecan families, Comité Ixtepecano and Universidad de la Tierra. Location: Ixtepec, Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Oaxaca, Mexico.
Project: Community Kitchen. Project in collaboration with the inhabitants of Loma Bonita and Cocina CoLaboratorio. Location: Loma Bonita, Chiapas. Mexico.
Project: Community Kitchen. Project in collaboration with the inhabitants of Loma Bonita and Cocina CoLaboratorio. Location: Loma Bonita, Chiapas. Mexico.
Project in collaboration with the Digital Rural Baccalaureate No. 186. Location: Tepetzintan, Sierra Nororiental de Puebla, Mexico.
![Ecoparque Bacalar Ecoparque Bacalar](https://cloudinary.royalacademy.org.uk/royal-academy/image/upload/c_fill,cs_tinysrgb,dn_72,f_auto,fl_progressive.keep_iptc,w_708,h_398,ar_16:9/xlucbu1mnfurvuv3f1f8.jpg)
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Royal Academy Dorfman Prize
The RA Architecture Prize is awarded to an architect or individual who has been instrumental in shaping the discussion, collection or production of architecture.