Photo courtesy Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden architects + urbanistes. Photo © Nic Lehoux.

The Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre has won the 'Holiday' division of the World Architecture Festival.

The Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre (Osoyoos, B.C.) has won the 'Holiday' category at the inaugural World Architecture Festival awards.

Designed by Vancouver's Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden Architects (HBBH), the project is located in Canada's only desert—the South Okanagan Valley. Built into a hillside, the interpretive centre features extensive indoor and outdoor galleries, interactive learning environments, and multimedia theatres. It also features the continent's largest rammed earth wall—a 80-m (262.5-ft) long, 5.5-m (18-ft) high, and 600-mm (24-in.) thick insulated structure built from local soils mixed with concrete and colour additives.

The Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre was one of a trio of Canadian projects shortlisted for the Festival's program, which took place in Barcelona, Spain, on October 24. Along with the winners in 16 other categories, it competed for World Building of the Year status. That prize ultimately went to Dublin, Ireland-based Grafton Architects for their new faculty building at Luigi Bocconi University (Milan, Italy).

Earlier in October, the centre and its designers also received a Governor-General's Medal for Architecture.