Peru students win GROHE 10,000-pound water prize

GROHE, leading global brand for integrated bathroom solutions and kitchen faucets, and the World Architecture Festival (WAF), have chosen the winner of the first International Water Research Prize.

On behalf of her students, Belen Desmaison, teaching fellow of the Pontificia Catholic University of Peru (PCUP), received the prize money of 10,000 pounds sponsored by WAF founder partner GROHE.

GROHE and WAF awarded the prize to a small-community water management system in the Amazon Rainforest.

The area has the world's highest precipitation rate per year, yet just under a third of its population has access to water.

The PCUP team has developed a solution that collects, stores and processes rainwater using pipes. The project won against twelve competitors. The finalists on the competition’s shortlist were selected out of a total of 60 submissions.

Receiving the prize, Desmaison said, “We’re very grateful for this award as it will allow us and the communities in the Amazon Rainforest that work with us to continue to explore alternatives for the provision of water to peri-urban and rural areas. We aim to use this opportunity to work on the production of a rainwater storage system made using local materials and knowledge that can be easily integrated with traditional architectural typologies.”

Michael Seum, Vice President, Design, GROHE, said, “First, when we were identifying projects with water scarcity issues, I could not imagine that the Peruvian Amazon would be on the shortlist. However, this carefully considered project highlights that less than a third of the population has access to water and the proposal of a communal water management system integrating pre-existing water networks sounds like a pragmatic and innovative solution. We are proud to present the 10,000 pounds prize money for this research project.”

The prize is based on the WAF Manifesto published last year. It describes the most important challenges for architects within the next ten years. Proper handling of water is the top priority. Other categories include topics such as the aging of society and health, climate, energy and carbon, ethics and values, power and justice, smart cities, building technologies, recycling and virtual worlds.

"At GROHE, we want to contribute to a better understanding of how water relates to its built environment. As such, we're more than happy to support an architectural award that honours relevant research initiatives," said Christopher Barger, Senior Vice President, Global Projects, GROHE. "I would like to thank the students of PCUP for bringing this specific water-related issue in the Amazon Rainforest to our attention. In addition, I want to congratulate them on the innovative solution that they have developed for this problem."

In addition to other Manifesto-related awards, the WAF honoured numerous architecture awards throughout the three festival days.

GROHE CEO Michael Rauterkus presented the GROHE-sponsored World Building of the Year Award to WOHA Architects from Singapore (for the design of the building Kampung Admiralty). Other GROHE-sponsored awards went to SeARCH, the Netherlands (Hotel Jakarta, Category Hotel and Leisure), Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, UK (Weston Street, Category Small Scale Housing), Sanjay Puri Architects, India (The Street, Category Large Scale Housing) and Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos, Mexico (Amelia Tulum, Residential Future Project).