'Modern day Machu Picchu' wins top international architecture prize

Bold addition: Judges said the university campus stood out from the other entries
Iwan Baan/courtesy of RIBA
Jamie Bullen24 November 2016

A Peruvian university campus dubbed a “modern day Machu Picchu” has scooped the first international Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) prize.

Judges said the Universidad de Ingenieria y Tecnologia (UTEC) in Lima stood out as a “bold new addition to the city skyline” after it was crowned the winner of the inaugural awards.

Designed by Dublin firm Grafton Architects, the building was chosen from a shortlist of six buildings across five continents including work by British architects David Chipperfield and the late Dame Zaha Hadid.

Experts said the high-rise campus, which was built on the edge of a ravine and is used by engineering students, was an “exceptional example of civil architecture” and was “designed with people at its heart”.

UTEC Lima - In pictures

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The RIBA jury said: “Grafton Architects have created a new way to think about a university campus, with a distinctive ‘vertical campus’ structure responding to the temperate climatic conditions and referencing Peru’s terrain and heritage.

“To its close neighbours, it is a series of landscaped terraces with clefts, overhangs and grottos, a modern day Machu Picchu.”

Comparisons: The campus was dubbed a "modern day Macchu Pichu" 
Iwan Baan/courtesy of RIBA

RIBA President Jane Duncan added UTEC would “inspire other architects and universities all over the world”.

Grafton Architects directors Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara said they were "honoured” after they were awarded the prize.

Other buildings in contention for the award included the Heydar Aliyev Centre in Azerbaijan, a curved conference centre designed by Dame Zaha Hadid, who died earlier this year.

A Norwegian concert hall, Portuguese arts centre, Mexican art gallery and a First World War memorial in France were among the other shortlisted entries.

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