Boulders Beach wins architecture prize.

The information centre and entrance kiosk to the Boulders penguin colony near Simons Town has received the international architecture award from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design. The project, designed by Capetonian architect and urban planner Piet Louw, involved converting and expanding an old naval station dating from the second world war. The resulting visitors facilities blend with the surrounding environment, especially the sea and boulders that give the beach its name.

The Boulders centre is one of 33 winners in the 2006 contest, and the only winner from Africa. Other prizes were awarded to the project for the restructuring of the La Scala theatre in Milan, Italy; the national art museum in Tokyo, Japan; Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia; and the House of the Four Seasons in New York. The winning projects will be presented in an exhibition organised by the Royal Institute of Architects in Dublin in December 2006.

Boulders is part of the Table Mountain National Park and it attracts an estimated 500,000 tourists each year.