How a swimming pool in Tullamore helped inspire a world-renowned architect 

UTEC University campus in Peru, designed by Grafton Architects, won the inaugural 2016 RIBA International Prize for the world’s best new building.

Plunging into a freezing public pool in her home town was one of the things that first drew Yvonne Farrell, one of the world’s most highly acclaimed architects, to her chosen profession.

That public pool showed her how our built environment can impact and shape communities — allowing children in landlocked Tullamore to learn to swim.