"Shadow is a luxury". The soundbite from architect Gustavo Utrabo, 33, refers to an austere construction that him and partner Pedro Duschenes, 31, built to house up to 540 students from a boarding school in Tocantins, northern Brazil.
The building's rationality, that followed the currently inescapable sustainability standards, put it among the finalist for the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) International Prize.
Utrabo and Duschenes' building, from firm Aleph Zero, with interior design by Marcelo Rosenbaum, is competing with three other projects.
Two other are also schools - Tokuo Gakuen school of music, in Tokyo, from firm Nikken Sekkei and the Central European University, in Budapest, from Irish architects Sheila O'Donnell and John Tuomey.
The third and most colorful is the second stage of a residential building that changed Milan's skyline, the Bosco Verticale, from Boeri Studio.
The four finalists announcement would happen this Wednesday (12th), in London.
The "Children's Village" houses students from 13 to 18 years old that attend a school kept for 45 years by Bradesco Foundation in one of a remote part of Brazil.
Last year, the project won the fourth Tomie Ohtake Institute Architecture Award and the American Architecture Prize, in the social housing category.
Translated by NATASHA MADOV
Read the article in the original language