Pritzker Prize–winning architecture firm SANAA has received the 2014/15 Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP) for Grace Farms in New Canaan, Connecticut. The biennial prize, presented by the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture, recognizes the most distinguished architectural works in North and South America.
SANAA’s structure, featuring a ribbon-like undulating form that meanders through rolling terrain, opened in October 2015. Known as the River, the building functions as a peaceful respite and gathering place for Grace Farms and the New Canaan community at large. “The line between architecture and landscape was so convincingly blurred,” says Stan Allen, MCHAP jury president. “The building reframes the landscape and offers visitors a unique experience of nature.”
SANAA founders Kazuko Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa will receive $50,000 in research funding and serve as the MCHAP Chair at IIT Architecture Chicago for the following academic year.
In addition to Grace Farms, the finalists for MCHAP included Weekend House in São Paulo by Angelo Bucci; UTEC Campus in Lima by Grafton Architects; Pachacamac Museum in Lima by Llosa Cortegana; Tower 41 in Mexico City by Alberto Kalach; and Star Apartments in Los Angeles by Michael Maltzan. Winners of the newly established student award, MCHAP.student, were also announced: Tommy Kyung-Tae Nam and Yun Yun, from the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan, received the award for their graduate thesis project, (a)typical office.
