Chipperfield wins Spanish city masterplan comp

The practice saw off competition from Dominique Perrault, Foreign Office Architects, MVRDV and Carlos Ferrater to land the competition for the development, which will include an art museum, a public square and a congress centre.

The walled city of Segovia, which lies just to the north of Madrid, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been proposed for the 2016 European Capital of Culture.

And, according to Chipperfield, the scheme has taken its inspiration from the city's 8th-century walls, its plaza, its narrow irregular streets and the Alcazar (castle). It would, added Chipperfield, 'reinvent a new low and dense plan'.

Referring to the sensitive nature of the site, the competition jury said Chipperfield's project showed 'a singular sensibility being integrated into the environment and the surroundings'.