Barclay & Crousse Architecture

Barclay & Crousse Architecture is an architecture studio founded in 1994 in Paris by the Peruvian architects Sandra Barclay and Jean Pierre Crousse. The practice spent its first 17 years based in France, working mainly on French projects, before relocating its office to Lima, Peru, in 2006. It continues to collaborate with the Parisian studio Nord-Sud Architecture, giving the practice a transatlantic profile that spans Peru and France. The studio describes its work as a design laboratory exploring the bonds between landscape, climate and architecture, with a focus on the relationship to place and human wellbeing. Its approach treats time, space and light as central concerns, and it aims to challenge notions of technology, usage and quality of life from the specific conditions of developing countries in ways that can be pertinent in a global context. Barclay & Crousse is best known for public, cultural and educational buildings in Peru. Notable works include the Museo de Sitio Julio C. Tello de la Cultura Paracas, an archaeological museum in the coastal desert; the Lugar de la Memoria, la Tolerancia y la Inclusión Social in Lima; the extension of the Universidad de Piura (UDEP) with classrooms and faculty offices; and the Regional Government headquarters of Moquegua. The studio has also worked on schools, such as the Franco Peruano School in Lima, and on French projects including the transformation of the cultural centre in Le Havre into the Musée d'art moderne André Malraux, carried out with Beaudouin Architectes. The practice has received wide international recognition. It won the 2018 Mies Crown Hall of the Americas Award (MCHAP) and the first Oscar Niemeyer Prize, and the International Committee of Architectural Critics (CICA) awarded it the 2013 Latin America Prize. In Peru it received the National Architecture Prize (Hexágono de Oro) in 2014 and 2018. Its projects have been exhibited and published worldwide, and four monographic books have been published on its work. Barclay & Crousse participated in the main exhibition at the 16th Venice Biennale in 2018. The studio remains a private, architect-owned practice led by its two founding partners, with Sandra Barclay also active in academia, including a long tenure as an associate professor at the PUCP.

Barclay & Crousse Architecture was founded in 1994 in Paris by the Peruvian architects Sandra Barclay and Jean Pierre Crousse. For its first 17 years the studio was based in France and realised mainly French projects. An early major success was its collaboration with Beaudouin Architectes on the transformation of the cultural centre in Le Havre into the Musée d'art moderne André Malraux. The renovation, begun in 1995 and completed in 1999, was nominated for the Prix de l'Équerre d'argent. The original building had been commissioned by André Malraux as a maison de la culture and realised in 1961 by architects Guy Lagneau, Jean Dimitrijevic, Michel Weil and Raymond Audigier, with Jean Prouvé as consultant. The 1995 renovation created a central exhibition space, effective shading and a new visitor route, with smaller rooms for individual exhibitions on a mezzanine and transparent, coated, rotating louvers on the west side to filter light. After a donation arrived in 2006, Laurent Beaudouin and Sandra Barclay enlarged the exhibition rooms and integrated a new light well. Around 2000 Barclay and Crousse were offered the chance to design three houses in Peru — Casa M, Casa B and Casa Equis. After these were completed, they moved the firm's base to Lima in 2006, from which point they concentrated on projects in Peru. Some projects continued to be realised in France in collaboration with Guilhem Roustan and Jean Marc Viste, partners of the Parisian firm Nord-Sud. The studio gained numerous awards for the archaeological museum in Paracas. Built in Peru's coastal desert region on the ruins of the former archaeological museum destroyed by an earthquake in 2007, the building comprises a museum and conservation area and a learning area with interactive facilities. The architects took great care to integrate the building into the landscape without destroying important cultural sites of origin. A long, reddish, unplastered concrete volume nestles into the dunes and is punctuated by four regularly arranged, transverse blocks with panoramic windows on the upper floor. In 2016 the extension of the Universidad de Piura (UDEP) was completed. The architects conceived their buildings as a continuation of the carob-tree forest that grows in the dry desert climate. From outside the buildings appear monolithic; inside, the tall spaces are articulated and provide both light and sufficient shade and natural ventilation in the hot, dry climate. For the headquarters of the regional government of Moquegua, the architects chose a cylindrical form, establishing a formal relationship with the nearby Cerro Baúl mountain, again taking care to admit enough light while preventing heat gain. Across its projects the studio emphasises both a relationship to the specific place and human wellbeing. Its work has been recognised by the 2018 Mies Crown Hall of the Americas Award and the first Oscar Niemeyer Prize, among other international awards. The International Committee of Architectural Critics (CICA) acknowledged the work with the 2013 Latin America Prize. In Peru the practice obtained the Peruvian Architecture National Prize in 2014 and 2018. Its projects have been exhibited and published worldwide, and four monographic books have been published: "Atmospheric Landscapes" by AV Monografías (2023), "Landscapes of Intimacy" by Arquine and IIT (2020), and "Learning Landscapes" (2018) and "Segnali di Vita tra due Deserti" (2011), both by the Italian publisher Lettera Ventidue. Barclay & Crousse participated in the main exhibition at the 16th Venice Biennale in 2018.

• 2025

  Franco Peruano School in Lima, won in a 2018 competition, scheduled for completion.

• 2019

  UDEP extension named Obra del Año (ODA award) by Archdaily.

• 2018

  Wins the Mies Crown Hall of the Americas Award (MCHAP) and a second Hexágono de Oro; participates in the main exhibition at the 16th Venice Biennale.

• 2016

  Extension of the Universidad de Piura (UDEP) completed; wins first prize of the Premio Oscar Niemeyer at the XX Pan-American Architecture Biennale of Quito.

• 2014

  Awarded the Hexágono de Oro (Peruvian National Architecture Prize).

• 2013

  Lugar de la Memoria, la Tolerancia y la Inclusión Social completed; receives the CICA Latin America Prize.

• 2012

  Museo de Sitio Julio C. Tello de la Cultura Paracas completed; wins first prize in the cultural buildings category at the XV Bienal de Arquitectura del Perú.

• 2006

  Firm relocates its base from Paris to Lima, Peru.

• 1999

  Transformation of the cultural centre in Le Havre into the Musée d'art moderne André Malraux completed with Beaudouin Architectes; nominated for the Prix de l'Équerre d'argent.

• 1994

  Studio founded in Paris by Sandra Barclay and Jean Pierre Crousse.

A transatlantic, award-winning architecture studio focused on climate-responsive, landscape-integrated public and cultural architecture.

• 2012

  Museo de Sitio Julio C. Tello de la Cultura Paracas

• 2013

  Lugar de la Memoria, la Tolerancia y la Inclusión Social

• 2016

  Universidad de Piura (UDEP) extension

• Regional Government headquarters of Moquegua

• 2025

  Franco Peruano School

• 1999

  Musée d'art moderne André Malraux, Le Havre

1. 1BARCLAY&CROUSSE official websitebarclaycrousse.com
2. 2ABOUT — BARCLAY&CROUSSEbarclaycrousse.com
3. 3Barclay & Crousse Architecture — Wikidatawikidata.org
4. 4Barclay & Crousse Architecture — Wikipedia (German)de.wikipedia.org
5. 5BARCLAY&CROUSSEbarclaycrousse.com