A recently completed visitor centre by Oto Arquitectos on the Cape Verde island of Fogo has been destroyed by a volcano just seven months after it was named the 2015 Cultural Building of the Year.

Fogo Natural Park Venue, winner of the Culture Architecture category prize at the 2015 Arch Daily Building of the Year Awards announced in February, is now in ruins after the nearby Pico do Fogo volcano erupted and completely decimated the building.

Fogo-Island-Natural-Park-Cape-Verde_OTO-Architects_dezeen_784_11.jpg Before and After: Parque Natural do Fogo. Images: Dezeen.

André Castro Santos, one of the four founders of the architecture studio, described the event to Dezeen as "traumatic".

"On the first three days the building resisted and stopped the lava, only the south wall was destroyed," he explains.

"But on the fourth day the volcano got stronger and the building was completely swallowed by lava."

"It took us seven years...[and] after we won the completion and it lived seven months," adds the architect.

"We think buildings are forever but nature is stronger."

There were no reported casualties from the volcano eruption however many residents of Fogo were displaced.

See full list of 2015 ArchDaily Building of the Year Awards here.

Photography: Oto Arquitectos, Dezeen

Nathan Johnson

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