The award recognises a process initiated in 2020 by Carballeda de Avia Council and Fundación RIA in the village of Muimenta, as part of the Xunta de Galicia’s “Model Villages” programme. The initiative addresses challenges such as depopulation, land abandonment, wildfire prevention and the need to create new opportunities for living and economic activity in rural areas.

Through territorial analysis, close collaboration with local residents and coordination between public institutions and local stakeholders, Fundación RIA developed an action-oriented revitalisation plan for the village. Throughout the process, Carballeda de Avia Council and Fundación RIA built a collaborative framework involving institutions, technical teams and local organisations to transform the initial strategy into a series of concrete interventions.

In recent years, the strategy has taken shape through a network of complementary projects. These include the redesign of the village square, the creation of a community kitchen and dining space, the rehabilitation of a vacant house for temporary public accommodation and the development of a new social centre conceived as a flexible space for community life, shared work, entrepreneurship and local production.

The award highlights the ability of Carballeda de Avia Council and Fundación RIA to sustain long-term processes, activate existing resources and use architecture as a tool for collective wellbeing. Muimenta demonstrates how collaboration between local government, institutions and community networks can help shape new ways of living and working in rural territories.