Outstanding architecture: RIBA awards the 20 best buildings in the world for 2018
The architects behind a Brazilian boarding school for disadvantaged children have been awarded one of the world’s top prizes thanks to its use of design to improve the quality of education.
Architecture firm Aleph Zero won the RIBA International Emerging Architect prize for 2018 for the Children Village in Formoso do Araguaia, which provides accommodation for 540 senior school children.
Run and funded by the Bradesco Foundation, it is one of 40 schools providing education for deprived Brazilian children.
The judges were particularly impressed by the building’s construction from prefabricated, reforested wood to demonstrate the importance of using natural resources in a rational and sustainable way.
“We were impressed by the way the architects embraced the question of how architecture can stimulate its users, as well as the surrounding community, in a region rich in natural resources but poor in opportunities, education and economic resources,” said Julia Barfield, chair of the RIBA Awards group.
“Aleph Zero are philosophical, reflectful and thoughtful architects who are reinterpreting the Brazilian vernacular using the abundant natural resources that surround the site in an innovative way which inherently promotes both economic and environmental sustainability.”
RIBA also awarded 19 other projects around the globe in the RIBA Awards for International Excellence 2018, ranging from private homes and places of worship to civic spaces and large urban infrastructure projects.
The 20 award-winning new buildings are in 16 countries around the world, although no British buildings were included on the list.
Residential projects included an extension to a Victorian building on an exposed cliff edge on Bruny Island in Tasmania, Captain Kelly’s Cottage; an architect’s live-work studio and home built as an ingeniously crafted "box" in Colombo, Sri Lanka; and Bosco Verticale, a high-rise apartment block in Milan with living walls, creating its own micro-climate.
“These 20 outstanding projects were selected for their architectural ambition, design ingenuity and excellence of execution,” said RIBA president Ben Derbyshire. “Importantly, they demonstrate the significant and far-reaching contribution that architecture makes to our daily lives.”
Scroll through the gallery above to see all 20 winning buildings.
The projects awarded are now all in the running to win the overall RIBA International Prize, which will be selected from a shortlist of four and announced in November.
