2018 MCHAP to School in Peru

MCHAP was created by former IIT College of Architecture dean Wiel Arets, among others, as a prize that would recognize "the best architectural work in the Americas realized in the preceding two years." In the first cycle, the 2014 MCHAP was given to two buildings: Álvaro Siza's Iberê Camargo Foundation and Herzog & de Meuron's 1111 Lincoln Road. Two years later, the 2016 MCHAP was awarded to SANAA's River Building at Grace Farms.

Sandra Barclay & Jean Pierre Crousse may not be household names like Siza, Jacque Herzog & Pierre de Meuron, or Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA, but this prize should give them some recognition well outside of their native Peru, where they have practiced together since 2006 (Barclay & Crousse was formed in Paris in 1994 and they maintain offices in both countries). Before this victory Crousse served as a juror on the second MCHAP, and Barclay was named Architect of the Year at the 2018 Women in Architecture awards.

​Completed in April 2016, Edificio E at the University of Piura is, per a statement from MCHAP released when six finalists were named for the Prize back in August, "a new educational typology created under four main concerns: a new learning landscape ... sense of community, ... the building as a campus, ... [and] space and climate." Similar in many ways to Grafton Architects' RIBA International Prize-winning UTEC (also a university building in Peru), the building is permeable, has large cantilevered roofs for shade, and features "non-designated spaces for students" outside of the typical classrooms. When seen from above, it's clear the building is made up of eleven smaller structures united by exterior circulation beneath the roofs.

*The 2018 MCHAP jury was chaired by Ricky Burdett (Jury President, Professor of Urban Studies and Director of LSE Cities and the Urban Age Programme, London) and included Jose Castillo (Principal, Arquitectura 911sc, Mexico City), Ron Henderson (Professor and Director of the Master of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism, IIT, Chicago), Rodrigo Pérez de Arce (Professor, Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Estudios Urbanos, Pontificia Universidad Católica, Santiago de Chile), Claire Weisz (Founding Principal, WXY, New York), Susan Conger-Austin (Coordinator of International Affairs and Assistant Dean External Affairs, IIT, Chicago), Dirk Denison (MCHAP Director, Professor at College of Architecture, IIT, Chicago), and Sasha Zanko (MCHAP Coordinator, Chicago).