Archinect - News

Kashef Chowdhury’s Friendship Hospital named 2021 World’s Best New Building by RIBA

2022-01-25T19:47:00-05:00

One of designer Kashef Chowdhury and URBANA’s superlative recent works has received a huge honor from the UK’s oldest architectural organization. The Royal Institute of British Architects has today announced the firm’s Friendship Hospital project in Bangladesh as the winner of the 2021 International Prize for the World’s Best New Building.

The rural hospital is one of several firm projects in the country commissioned by a nonprofit group called Friendship that looks to empower underdeveloped communities in different regions of the country through hands-on social innovation and collaboration. The hospital provides the village of Satkhira, which has been heavily impacted by rising sea levels related to climate change. The village has particularly bad agricultural problems related to the rising waters, which the project was also able to address through the introduction of a new stormwater drainage system that simultaneously produces valuable drinking water and serves in the much-neede...

One-to-One #49 with Yvonne Farrell, director of Grafton Architects – winners of the RIBA International Prize

2016-12-12T17:02:00-05:00

Shortly after Grafton Architects won RIBA's inaugural International Prize for their UTEC campus in Lima, Peru, I spoke with the firm's director, Yvonne Farrell, to get the backstory to the project and discuss how the award might affect the firm in the long run. As an academic building, UTEC (pictured below) joins a rich collection of other institutional projects by the Dublin-based Grafton, a sampling of which is available in the gallery below.

Listen to One-to-One #49, featuring Yvonne Farrell of Grafton Architects:

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Shownotes:

Juhani Pallasmaa's The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses

William Curtis' lecture, "Platforms and horizon"

↑ Yvonne Farrel...

Grafton Architects' UTEC “vertical campus” wins inaugural RIBA International Prize

2016-11-23T19:02:00-05:00

RIBA awarded their inaugural International Prize today to The Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología (UTEC) in Lima by Grafton Architects and Shell Arquitectos. Open to architects worldwide, the Prize is RIBA's very own recognition award for “civil architecture that empowers people and societies to innovate and progress”, RIBA President Jane Duncan said. The grand jury, led by architect Richard Rogers, traveled to visit all six finalist buildings before making their final decision.

Irish practice Grafton Architects and Shell Arquitectos from Lima designed the brutalist vertical campus for UTEC, a 50-year-old engineering university that enables young Peruvians to gain engineering qualifications, and therefore encourage social mobility. The jury praised the UTEC building as a bold, masterful project that depicts Grafton Architects' years of experimenting with space and form.

“The vertical structure provides open circulation and meeting spaces in a succession of platforms that compose th...

RIBA announces 30 projects selected for International Prize

2016-05-10T15:16:00-04:00

The 30 buildings to be visited by the RIBA awards committee and under consideration for the inaugural RIBA International Prize have been announced today. This is the first RIBA award open to any qualified architect in the world and includes projects of varying size and budget.

Consequently the buildings span 20 different countries across the globe such as; Mexico, Turkey, Dublin and Vietnam. The selected projects will be whittled down to 20 and then a final six in the autumn, with the winner announced in December 2016.

The six finalist chosen will be visited by the Grand Jury which includes Richard Rogers, Billie Tsien and Marilyn Jordan Taylor FAIA among others.

RIBA President, Jane Duncan commented:

“We have been delighted with the response to our inaugural RIBA International Prize, which has brought a huge range of exceptional entries from all around the globe.It will be fascinating to see insights from the judges and entrants intothe power and value of great architecture, whe...

RIBA launches new International Prize for world's best new building, Richard Rogers to chair Grand Jury

2015-12-08T13:43:00-05:00

RIBA is establishing their own award for the world's best new building of the year, naming it the RIBA International Prize. Launched today, the International Prize will be awarded to the building that best "demonstrate[s] visionary, innovative thinking and excellence of execution, whilst making a distinct contribution to its users and to its physical context," regardless of style, scheme type, and budget. According to RIBA, the International Prize was created for "the general advancement of Civil architecture", as stated in their 1837 charter.

Registered architects around the world can send submissions until the February 9 deadline. For the first edition of the prize, submitted buildings must have been completed within the past three years (Jan. 1, 2013 - Feb. 1, 2016). Afterward, the prize will be awarded to a building completed within 2 years.

The full list of the Grand Jury won't be revealed until early 2016, but it includes three notable names so far: Jury Chair Richard Rogers, fo...