He becomes the second recipient of this award which was announced at the World Architecture Festival held in Barcelona from 4-6 November 2009.

The international jury, chaired by Rafael Viñoly and including Kengo Kuma, Farshid Moussavi, Suha

Ozkan and structural engineer Tim Macfarlane, conceded that the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre by Peter Rich was clearly the most architecturally and psychologically powerful project in the final, very tough, analysis. 'It carries both weight and a message of complexity to the outside world, ' commented Suha Ozkan. The jury agreed that the way in which it related to the land and made graceful virtues of the challenging issues of sustainability, politics and social improvement made it a highly deserving winner.