The International Prize of the Royal Institute of Architecture of Canada, which brings together about 5,000 professionals in this country, is awarded for structures with the potential for "social transformation". Any architect can apply for it; his building can also be located anywhere in the world. The winner will receive 100,000 Canadian dollars and a commemorative plaque. The third edition of the award is now underway, with the previous winners being Li Xiaodong for the Liyuan Library in Jiaoziehe Village near Beijing and Tezuka Architects for the Fuji Kindergarten in Tachikawa near Tokyo.
This time, buildings in twelve countries from six continents were nominated for the prize. Of these, the jury selected three finalists. One of them is The Thread cultural center in the Senegalese village of Sintian designed by Toshiko Mori: we wrote about it in detail here.
The second contender for the victory was the Lecture Building E of the University of Piura in Peru, the work of the architects Barclay & Crousse from Lima. The construction appeared as part of the government's policy: rich private universities now accept students from poor rural families, and they carry out programs of social "inclusion" through education.
The academic building is devoid of any spatial hierarchy in order to become the optimal environment for meeting students of various backgrounds. In addition, it accommodates Piura's dry and hot climate in its spacious, shaded and wind-catching semi-open public areas.
The most unusual building is the temple
Baha'is of South America in the foothills of the Andes at the edge of Santiago de Chile, one of the eight "continental" sanctuaries of this religion. The authors of the project are the Hariri Pontarini bureau from Toronto: before them, Canadian architects did not qualify for the RAIC International Prize finals. The temple was conceived in 2002, construction began in 2010 and was completed in 2016.
The centric structure consists of nine "petals" of glass and translucent marble slabs gently curled around the center of the oculus. In the interior, the traditional space for believers on the ground floor is combined with the choir tier, where you can retire without being alone.
The Baha'i religion declares the unity of mankind as a value, therefore the temple is open to those professing any faith and has already become an important attraction: since 2016, almost one and a half million people have visited it, including representatives of the indigenous population of Chile, the Mapuche (Araucanian) tribe, for whom a visit to the temple was often the first trip for the limits of your village.
The temple hosts community gatherings and programs for children and young people in collaboration with public schools. In architecture, openness is manifested in the form of nine entrances inside and the filling of the sanctuary with light - solar and artificial, depending on the time of day. Despite its seeming ephemerality, the building is able to withstand both the harsh Andes climate and the strong earthquakes characteristic of the region.
