Sandra Barclay and Gloria Cabral, from Peru and Paraguay, win 2018 Women in Architecture Awards

02/03/2018. [LON] UK
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA

Two South American architects have been selected as the winners of The Architectural Review and The Architects’ Journal’s 2018 Women in Architecture awards.

Site Museum of Paracas Culture by Barclay & Crousse. Image © Jean Pierre Crousse

Site Museum of Paracas Culture by Barclay & Crousse. Image © Jean Pierre Crousse

FADA by Gabinete de Arquitectura. Image © Federico Cairoli

Banco BASA by Gabinete de Arquitectura. Image © Federico Cairoli

Fundación Texo by Gabinete de Arquitectura. Image © Federico Cairoli

This year’s top prize, Architect of the Year, has been awarded to Peruvian architect Sandra Barclay, while Paraguayan architect Gloria Cabral has been selected as the winner of the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture, with both being recognized by the jury for their mastery of materials.

Founding partner of Barclay & Crousse, Sandra Barclay has been awarded the Architect of the Year for her work on Peru’s Site Museum of Paracas Culture (Museo de Sitio de Paracas). Located in the harsh environment of the Paracas Desert, the museum was built to replace a structure destroyed in a 2007 earthquake. Responding to these conditions, the building is designed to work with and withstand the difficult natural conditions.

Judges’ comments.-

‘Aware of the lack of control onsite and limited resources, the architects responded to the lack of context with a design that is both robust and simple, yet powerful, and even its man-made imperfection adds value to the building’

The shortlist for the 2018 Architect of the Year award also included:

- Biba Dow, Dow Jones Architects (United Kingdom) for the Garden Museum extension in London

- Ángela García de Paredes, Paredes Pedrosa (Spain) for the transformation of two old houses in Oropesa Spain

- Stephanie Macdonald, 6a Architects (United Kingdom) for Cowan Court in Cambridge

Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture

Gloria Cabral, partner at Asunción-based Gabinete de Arquitectura, has been awarded the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture. A protégé of Peter Zumthor, Cabral has developed a keen sense of elevating humble materials in inventive ways. Employing perhaps her favorite material, Paraguayan brick, Gabinete de Arquitectura constructed the soaring brick arch selected as the winner of the Golden Lion at the 2016 Venice Biennale.

Cabral will receive a £10,000 prize named for former director of design at the V&A, Moira Gemmill. The fund will be used to support Cabral’s continuing professional development.

Judges’ comments.-

‘Beyond her deep understanding of materials and construction, Cabral showed a sensitive appreciation of the life and use of the buildings she designs. Her commitment is extraordinary and her passion is infectious’

The shortlist for the 2018 Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture also included:

- Ilze Wolff, Wolff Architects (South Africa)

- Anna Puigjnaner and Maria Charneco, MAIO (Spain)

- Sook Hee Chun, WISE Architecture (South Korea)

Two other prizes awarded as part of the Women in Architecture awards program, the Jane Drew Prize and the Ada Louise Huxtable Prize, were given earlier this year to Amanda Levete and Madelon Vriesendorp, respectively.

More information

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.

Gloria Cabral

Gloria Cabral. For Paraguayan architect Gloria Cabral, designing buildings is based on thinking about how the space will be used rather than conceiving them as objects d’art. Influenced by what she calls the artistic and engineering sides of her parents, Cabral studied architecture at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción. While still studying, she was employed as an intern at prestigious Asuncion-based architecture firm, Gabinete de Arquitectura, and was made a full partner in 2004. For the past 10 years, she has worked with the Gabinete team on projects informed by strong environmental and social concerns, notably the Teleton Children’s Rehabilitation Center, which won first prize at the 2010 Bienal Panamericana in the recycling category. Also a committed teacher, Cabral has been a professor at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción since 2009, and has served as visiting professor at universities in Panama and Peru. She also lectures at universities in several South American countries. Driven by a profound belief in collaborative approaches to work, Cabral hopes that in her mentorship with Peter Zumthor she can bring something to the relationship as well as receive something to help her grow and gain international exposure and experience outside Paraguay.