Marta Maccaglia Is the Winner

When Marta Maccaglia traveled to Peru fresh out of college through an Italian government program, she originally wanted to work there as an educator. However, once on site she found a dilapidated daycare center. She decided to stay and rebuild the building with a local NGO. It is apt that the nonprofit Marta Maccaglia later founded is called Semillas, meaning “seeds.” Founded in 2014 and now based in the Peruvian cities of Lima, Junín, and Cajamarca, its members work to promote access to education and public infrastructure in places where it is far from a given.

With Semillas, the interior architect and exhibition designer has remained true to this approach. The now interdisciplinary team of national and international professionals — including architects, specialists in cooperative projects, builders, and craftspeople — has already built numerous schools and public facilities in the Peruvian jungle: a total of thirteen projects. Maccaglia has spent more than a decade working in Peru, researching the country's territories, cultures, and architectures, and has taught in the Faculty of Architecture at UCAL (Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de América Latina) since 2015.

For Maccaglia, it is problematic that the Peruvian government is trying to politically unify the country but is failing to include the indigenous communities in the microregions with their numerous languages. The government intends to build modern European buildings, but they do not correspond at all to the Peruvian mentality. The planners of Semillas, on the other hand, work with a participatory approach; they want to respect the country's diversity and incorporate the cultural wealth and knowledge of the people.

School buildings are important (and often the only) public buildings in a rural community. The creation of buildings in a joint process promotes exchange and understanding in a community. In addition, it is important to preserve knowledge, some of it thousands of years old, and to research the soil, the people, and their history. In the future, Maccaglia would like to continue developing projects in Peru and abroad that serve local communities. But she also finds it important to exert political influence on housing policy and to achieve multiplier effects through international cooperation with universities.

The jury, which had to select a winner from the five finalists, has chosen Marta Maccaglia as the first recipient of the divia award. "In her work in underserved areas, she creates buildings that can respond to the dynamic needs of the community with a generous spirit, a humanistic approach, and a courageous attitude," the citation reads. It also says that, since coming to Peru, Maccaglia has become an equal part of her adopted country.