RIBA awards international prize for world’s best new building to a boarding school in Brazil.

In architectural circles, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is no less important than the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is to the Hollywood set. After all, the Academy awards has the Oscars; RIBA has its prestigious RIBA International Prize, a biannual award that demonstrates international architectural excellence and ambition and delivers worthwhile social impact.

And in September, RIBA announced the four finalists for the prize’s shortlist. The list included a music school in Tokyo, a new university campus in Budapest, a school complex on the edge of the Amazon, and a green residential tower in Milan. This month, RIBA officially announced that the coveted prize has gone to Children Village, the school complex near the rainforest in northern Brazil designed by Brazilian architecture firms Aleph Zero and Rosenbaum.

Funded by the Bradesco Foundation (which provides education for children in rural parts of Brazil), the school provides boarding accommodations to 540 13- to 18-year-olds. Because many of the students have to travel for hours to reach the school, the architects sought to create an environment that served as a home away from home […]

Source: A Schoolhouse in Brazil Just Took Home One of the World’s Most Prestigious Architectural Awards