The annual award for architecture of distinctive quality built in North or South America, the Mies Crown Hall America Prize, was awarded to the Grace Farms project in New Canaan, California.

SANAA’s Grace Farms has been announced as the winner of the 2014/2015 Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize

Grace Farms is a non-profit organisation who aims to “create a platform for people to experience nature, the arts, justice, community building and faith”. It is about 80hectares in size, of which only three hectares have buildings and other human interventions.

The Japanese firm SANAA won the prize for the River, a building that ‘runs’ through a part of the landscape and, in places, creates ‘pools’, where different activities can be investigated or pursued.

According to the president of the jury, it was the way in which the border between building and landscape blurs, that clinched it for SANAA.

The River is a long building under one roof and the different spaces that are created, can be used for anything from architecture tours, community dinners, lectures and discourse, concerts, athletics and worship events. Visitors can also hike in the rest of the farm’s 77 hectare and enjoy nature.