Barclay & Crousse's facility of the Piura University winner of the 2018 Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize

20/10/2018. [Piura] Peru
metalocus, ANTONIO G DE JUAN

'Edificio E' education building for the University of Piura by Barclay & Crousse. Photograph by Cristobal Palma

'Edificio E' education building for the University of Piura by Barclay & Crousse. Photograph by Cristobal Palma

'Edificio E' education building for the University of Piura by Barclay & Crousse. Photograph by Cristobal Palmaotograph by Barclay & Crousse. Cristobal Palma

'Edificio E' education building for the University of Piura by Barclay & Crousse. Photograph by Cristobal Palma

Model. 'Edificio E' education building for the University of Piura by Barclay & Crousse

Ground floor plan. 'Edificio E' education building for the University of Piura by Barclay & Crousse

Section. 'Edificio E' education building for the University of Piura by Barclay & Crousse

Barclay & Crousse's 'Edificio E' education building for the University of Piura in Peru has been crowned as the winner of the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize for 2018. The biennial award, conceived by IIT College of Architecture, recognizes distinguished architectural projects built in North and South America. Previous winners include SANAA's meandering Grace Farms, Álvaro Siza's Iberê Camargo Foundation in Brazil, and Herzog & de Meuron's 1111 Lincoln Road project in Miami.

Set within a dry savannah landscape in the north of Peru, this new university building creates a compact and complex network of interconnected classrooms, offices, and open spaces specifically designed to accommodate students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“The ambiguous, shaded exterior spaces sheltered by the buildings that form the whole were created to provide a place for informal learning and for life in the broadest sense. It has been immensely rewarding to see how students and professors occupy the structure, and to see how it has created a new centrality on campus, where people stay independently of having classes," said Barclay & Crousse.

Selecting from over 175 nominated projects that had been trimmed down to only six finalists, the jury this year were focused on projects that showed potential for lasting influence on both architecture and culture. In other words, projects that, as described by MCHAP Director Dirk Denison, "push forward the development of architecture as a practice, reshaping how we see and organize the built environment around us", and that "participate in the larger cultural exchange that is an essential characteristic of the Americas today."

The jurors commended the project's ability to create a social landscape hosting students and faculty from across the University, where the design between classrooms serves as a new kind of public space. “It is not just a project but an exploration of a type, and therefore a set of spatial notions that invites emulation and even replication,” said Rodrigo Pérez de Arce.

Responding to both a demanding climate as well as active seismic activity in the region, Barclay & Crousse's work also displayed a confident approach to the many environmental challenges of today, a feature of the design also celebrated by the jurors. "This is perhaps the first building I have seen where the trees were as important as the classrooms. And it is inspiring to see the idea of designing for earthquakes resulting in a building that is at the same time many buildings," commented jury member Claire Weisz.

More information

Architects

Barclay & Crousse Architecture (Sandra Barclay and Jean Pierre Crousse)

Collaborators

Assistant.- David Leininger Structural design.- Higashi Ingenieros Fire safety and evacuation.- ESSAC Engineering Electrical and electromechanical installations.- MQ & Ingenieros Asociados Sanitary facilities.- Team "G" S.A.

Client

Piura University (UDEP)

Manager

External management.- SICG SAC Infrastructure Management.- UDEP - Gonzalo Escajadillo

Main contractor

Huarcaya Construcción – Engineering

Area

Builded surface.- 9,400 m²

Dates

2016

Sandra Barclay + Jean Pierre Crousse Barclay & Crousse

Barclay & Crousse. Their work manage a wide range of programs and focuses both on the relationship to place and human wellbeing, through pertinence in usage and attention to time, space and light. They like to consider their projects as being part of a design laboratory that explore the bonds between landscape, climate and architecture, in order to challenge those notions of technology, usage, and quality of life that, from the specific conditions of developing countries, can inform and be pertinent in a global context.

Founded in 1994 in Paris, since 2006 the studio is based in Lima, pursuing its activity in France with the Parisian studio Atelier Nord-Sud. Their work has been recognized by the first Oscar Niemeyer Prize, and in several international Biennales. They have been awarded by the International Committee of Architectural Critics (CICA) with the 2013 Latin America Prize. Barclay & Crousse has earned the Peruvian Architecture National Prize, Hexágono de Oro, in 2014. Their work has been exhibited and published worldwide. The Italian editor Lettera Ventidue published in 2012 a monographic book about their work in the Peruvian desert coastline, presented at the 13th Venice Biennale.

Sandra Barclay

1967 born in Lima (Peru). 1990 Graduated as Architect at URP (Lima). 1993 Graduated as Architect at the Ecole d’Architecture de Paris-Belleville (France). 1993 Robert Camelot Prize for best Architectural Thesis in France. 1994 Established Barclay & Crousse Architecture in Paris, France. 2000 Fulbrignt Foundation and American Institute of Architects Fellowship. 2005-2006 Teacher at the Ecole d’Architecture de Paris La Villette (Paris, France). 2006 Teacher at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. 2012 Participant for Peru at the 13th Venice Biennale. 2013 Master in Territory and Landscape, Universidad Diego Portales (Chile). 2016 Curator of the Peruvian Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennale.

Jean Pierre Crousse

1963 Born in Lima (Peru). 1987 Architecture degree at URP (Lima). 1989 graduated at the Politécnico di Milano (Italy). 1994 Established Barclay & Crousse Architecture in Paris, France. 1999-2006 Teacher at the Ecole d’Architecture de Paris Belleville (France). 2006 Teacher at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. 2012 Member of the South America Project, GSD – Harvard University. 2012 Participant for Peru at the 13th Venice Biennale. 2013 Master in Territory and Landscape, Universidad Diego Portales (Chile). 2015 Design Critic at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. 2016 Member of the International Jury of the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, Chicago. 2016 Curator of the Peruvian Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennale.