MIT's School of Architecture + Planning played a central role in the project that won this year’s World
Building of the Year Award at the World Architecture Festival in
Barcelona. South African architect Peter Rich won the award for his
Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre in South Africa, described by the jury
as "clearly the most architecturally and psychologically powerful
project in the final, very tough, analysis."
The design and engineering of the ancient tile vaulting technique
employed in the construction was done by John Ochsendorf, Class of 1942
Career Development Professor in the Department of Architecture, and
Michael Ramage MArch ’06, currently a lecturer at the University of
Cambridge. Also from SA+P, Matt Hodge SM ’07 conducted material
research for the tiles and Philippe Block SM ’05, PhD ’09 reviewed the
structural design using the Thrust Network Analysis he developed for
his PhD.
