Announced every year since 2015 at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Versailles Prize is a set of architecture and design awards that highlight the most outstanding works in various categories, such as airports, educational campuses, sports facilities, passenger stations, hotels and restaurants, according to the award’s website.
The Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) was recognized in 2024 as one of the most beautiful in the world, in the World Selection category, next to the Zayed International Airport, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Changi Airport, terminal 2, Singapore; Suvarnabhumi Airport, Midfield Satellite 1, in Thailand, as well as Logan International Airport, terminal E, in Boston, and Kansas City International Airport, both in the United States.
The delivery ceremony took place on December 2 at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, where AIFA was represented by Major General General Staff Construction Engineer Gustavo Ricardo Vallejo Suárez, responsible for that work.
The jury distinguished the Mexican airfield for its innovation, ecological efficiency and values of social interaction, as well as for highlighting the country’s historical and cultural heritage. He also considered the way in which it fits into its surroundings through a design that makes the most of natural light and green areas. He also recognized that the terminal has 18 modules and 1,316 columns each equipped with seismic isolators, which makes it the largest building in America to use this technology.
Despite all adversity and opponent
Something that should be highlighted is that the Versailles Prize recognizes this dialogue between design and architecture, but not the speed of construction or having to work in the face of adversity, pandemics, container crises, the problems in the Panama Canal to bring supplies, the adverse political situation that distracted us from the fundamental reason of building to retrace our steps to prepare reports, attend to protections and demands and, apart from that, now that we had the opportunity to be designated by the government of Mexico to attend the award, confirm that the other winners are international design firms with great prestige and very focused on works of this nature
highlights General Vallejo Suárez, in an interview with The Day.
For him, it is a satisfaction to demonstrate with the AIFA that in Mexico it is possible to carry out large infrastructure works within the established time, quality and budget, and he celebrates that the Secretariat of National Defense has been responsible for bringing it to fruition. that monumental project.
It’s good that the President gave us this responsibility! It’s good that you trusted us! Because no construction company would have carried out this airport within time, on budget and with this national identity!
he emphasizes, and then clarifies that the participation of the Army in works like this is that of a tool to convert state decisions into viable and profitable infrastructure projects
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Add: Many people say that soldiers are being distracted from their basic functions, but no, the armed forces have troops assigned to security functions, accompanying civil security structures, medical care and in our case, engineering. Really, why are we here? We have said it on several occasions: the armed forces will be where the President instructs, society requires it and the Constitution allows it.
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We are also plastic
Proud of the recent recognition of the AIFA, Vallejo remembers the adverse reaction from various sectors and media when it was announced that the Army would be in charge of building that air terminal, and the disdain with which that institution was treated, he says, stating that the military does not know how to build and that there was a risk that they would do something horrible or a barracks, or that they would finish in several years.
But we are also plastic; What happens is that we are never in the spotlight or on the podiums, because we always find ourselves in adversity. Military engineers are on the border or in the mountains, where construction companies abandon the roads because it is not affordable for them, because there is insecurity, they are harassed, or where bad public servants, combined with voracious companies, run out of budget and abandon the construction site. Or in the construction of our barracks, which have to be sober, simple, austere
clarifies.
So, with low budgets and in a scenario always of austerity and limitations, we will never get a prize. But we don’t want awards or spotlights. Our greatest reward is to retire safely to our barracks or homes with the satisfaction of having fulfilled our duty. Nothing more, and what follows, a clean slate.
At the end of the AIFA, Vallejo Suárez and the Felipe Ángeles Group of Engineers, of which he is commander, took charge of the last three sections of the Mayan Train and the Tulum International Airport, in the Mexican southeast.