After decades "erased from the architectural map", Peru is making a comeback thanks to international recognition of impressive new buildings in the country, according to this year's Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize winners Sandra Barclay and Jean Pierre Crousse.
Accolades like the Mies award and Barclay's Woman Architect of the Year 2018 prize have catapulted Lima-based firm Barclay & Crousse to success, and brought the country back onto the global architecture stage, said the duo.
Architects Sandra Barclay and Jean Pierre Crousse spoke to Dezeen after winning this year's Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize
"Peru is beginning to be at the top of the architectural map again and... these recognitions are helping Peruvian architects to do better quality architecture," Crousse told Dezeen in an exclusive interview. "Peruvian architects are now more confident. We are now thinking that we can do high-quality architecture, which was not evident before."
Peruvian architecture is back on architectural map
This recent shift ends decades of dearth in the country's architecture scene, which began to blossom in the mid-20th century but was cut down when conflict began the 1970s.
"There was an enormous void because we had a military coup d'état, and then 20 years of terrorism and violence, which erased Peru from the architectural map," Crousse said.
"The generation that preceded us was the generation that lived in the difficult years of violenc...