Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Best new building in the world! You can tell that Theodore Dalrymple, who wrote “A modern Machu Picchu” for the Salibury Review, is not an architecture critic. There is too much common sense and indeed superior erudition in his piece about a building declared by the Royal Institute of British Architects to be “the best new building in the world” for 2016, RIBA’s first such prize. The building for the Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología was designed by Grafton Architects. It is in Peru, hence “modern Machu Picchu,” though it bears no resemblance at any depth of metaphor to the ancient mountain village. Dalrymple’s key insight is:

In the second section of the Guardian for 16 January, there is an article about a building in Peru that has ‘just earned … the title of best new building in the world.’ As the awarding body was the Royal Institute of British Architects, it was only to be expected that the building was a complete aesthetic mess, an eyesore: for it is by awarding prizes to eyesores that the RIBA covers up its past and present crimes.

Ditto the American Institute of Architects and, alas, every other such major outpost of the contemporary architecture establishment. As anyone with eyes (which RIBA et al. do not have) is capable of doing, Dalrymple sees through the emperor’s new clothes. And here is the ridiculous Oliver Wainwright article in the UK Guardian that he is chuckling at. Enjoy! (And hats off to Andrew Reed for sending this to me.)

Machu Picchu (Wilipedia)