'Modern Machu Picchu' takes Riba architecture prize

The Universidad de Ingenieria y Technologia (UTEC) in Lima, Peru, has been awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects' global architecture prize.

The jury described the building, designed by the Irish firm Grafton Architects, as "a series of landscaped terraces with clefts, overhangs and grottos" that resembled a "modern-day Machu Picchu".

UTEC is positioned on the edge of a ravine on the border of two residential districts, and the jury said its shape mirrored the organic curve of the landscape while "accommodating itself in the city".

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The building's cool, shaded platforms, open to views of one another and to the surrounding city, have encouraged a rich social and intellectual life on campus, says Wallpaper magazine.

It uses a defiantly "brutalist" style that fell out of fashion after its 1960s and 1970s heyday. But university CEO Carlos Heeran believes its elegant lines "remind us all that beauty can be found even in concrete".

Jonathan Glancey, writing for CNN, concedes that UTEC "goes against the grain of conventional beauty and against the kind of 'Hey! Look at me!' architecture" we expect from 21st-century buildings.

But he calls it an inclusive and empowering building. "Flanked by roaring urban motorways, this megastructure, designed by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara and their team... is truly a part of the Lima landscape."

The Dublin-based Grafton Architects have established a reputation for visionary and creative academic and educational buildings, says the Irish Times.

In future it should be possible to see their work closer to home. The practice has recently been selected to design a major new building for the London School of Economics and a new cultural quarter for Parnell Square in Dublin.