The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities announced this Tuesday the winners of the 2026 National Innovation and Design Awards. La Fábrica has been recognized in the Design and Business category, while Martín Azúa has been recognized in the Career in Design category and Inés Llasera in Young Design Professionals.
The Factory is awarded “for having demonstrated for 30 years that design can be the structural element that generates, articulates and transforms the most relevant cultural projects in Spain,” the Ministry has communicated. The company founded by Alberto Anaut and Alberto Fesser in 1996 applies “formal excellence, attention to detail and conceptual coherence as a method in each of its initiatives.” Fesser told EL PAÍS that they are very grateful and at the same time surprised, because in their case they are not a product design company, but rather they see design as the means or strategy to reach their goal, which is to bring contemporary culture closer to the people. “From the beginning we have included design in our work, with books, festivals and exhibitions,” he explains.
The jury has valued the “ability to create, placing design as a key axis, own cultural formats with identity, continuity and sustained impact”, where they have highlighted the magazine MatadorPHotoESPAÑA, the Madrid Design Festival, NotodoFilmFest, the Festival of Ideas, and Forma, the first international collection design fair in Spain. In this regard, Fesser points out that this initiative “shows that design is not an aesthetic whim, but rather it is a tool to change the world.”
In addition, the Ministry has recognized the role that La Fábrica has played in the creation of cultural spaces in the country such as La Casa Encendida, Matadero Madrid or La Térmica. “With nearly 16 million visitors accumulated in PHotoESPAÑA, more than 1,100 titles in its publishing house distributed in 49 countries and a network of alliances with the main museums and international institutions, La Fábrica has contributed decisively to changing the way in which culture is thought, designed and lived in contemporary Spain,” he highlighted.
The Basque designer Martín Azúa has been recognized with the lifetime achievement award for a career of more than 30 years, “dedicated to exploring the most humanistic and symbolic dimensions that objects are part of personal and social identity and that nature, craftsmanship and sustainability constitute the ethical and aesthetic horizon of the profession,” said the jury. Their work includes product and space design, exhibition curation, and research and teaching. His most emblematic project, the Basic Houseis part of the collection of the MoMA in New York, and since 1995 he has taught at Elisava.
Inés Llasera, recognized in the Young Design Professionals category, has been described by the Ministry as “an exponent of a new generation of Spanish designers who are committed to a practice deeply rooted in material experimentation, contemporary craftsmanship and the dialogue between nature, identity and object.”
Llasera was co-founder of the Tornasol Studio and promoter of the Kauani textile lighting project, and this year she has begun a new stage with the VASTO Gallery. The jury highlighted its “ability to place Spanish design in leading international circuits such as the Center Pompidou, Maison & Objet, Paris Design Week, FOG Design+Art and the India Mahdavi Project Room”, in addition to its contribution to the training of new generations of designers.
Minister Diana Morant, who called the winners by phone to inform them of the ruling, highlighted that “together we are building a better country, contributing with innovation and design to the economic, business and social development of Spain.” The distinction that La Fábrica has won is honorary, while the categories where Azúa and Llasera have been recognized are endowed with 50,000 and 30,000 euros respectively.