The 2020 Pritzker Architecture Prize
University Campus UTEC Lima (2015) in Lima, Peru. Photo courtesy of Iwan Baan
What Houzz contributors are saying:
University Campus UTEC Lima (2015) in Peru. Image courtesy of Iwan BaanFor more than two decades, their work was confined within the borders of their native Ireland, where mountains and cliffs informed many of their designs. Later they brought this geographic influence – think layers of blunt angles and forms recalling crags rather than organic curves and bends – to their international projects as well. This began with their first project outside Ireland, the Universita Luigi Bocconi in Milan, Italy, in 2008, a full 25 years after they began practicing. The University Campus UTEC Lima (pictured), built in 2015 in Lima, Peru, is a tiered, cascading design that sits on a challenging site next to a highway sunk into a ravine. The architects cited Machu Picchu – the multi-tiered Incan citadel ruin perched high in Peru’s Andes Mountains – as an influence for their design.Their projects include numerous educational buildings, housing, and cultural and civic institutions, all of which offer a “deep understanding of ‘spirit of place,’” says the jury. “Their works enhance and improve the local community. Their buildings are ‘good neighbours’ that seek to make a contribution beyond the boundaries of the building and to make a city work better.”