Archinect - News

A look back at Charles & Ray Eames' lesser-known designs in honor of their symmetry in life and death

2022-08-22T18:31:00-04:00

Yesterday's date, August 21st, occupies a unique place in architectural and design history as the day when Charles and Ray Eames both passed away, separated by a decade (1978 and 1988), respectively.

The shared life and work of the iconic power couple has since become the subject of numerous books, catalogs, museum retrospectives, and an excellent 2011 documentary (to name only a few), and enjoys an outsized place in the rich lineage of other husband-and-wife architectural partnerships continued today by the work of SO – IL, TWBTA, Höweler + Yoon, DS+R, and many others.

From the possible influence on early hip-hop carried on later by Ice Cube and Michael Ford, to Ray’s rediscovered RIBA Gold Medal speech, the studio’s legacy as ongoing source of inspiration, and the tranquility of watching perhaps their most famous design being assembled by hand, Archinect has explored the output of their relationship from a number of different angles over the years. All are exemplary of the many me...

Sheila O'Donnell + John Tuomey win 2015 RIBA Gold Medal for Architecture

2014-09-24T13:30:00-04:00

Irish architects Sheila O'Donnell and John Tuomey have been named the 2015 recipients of the prestigious RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture. Awarded since 1848 and personally approved by Her Majesty the Queen, the Gold Medal recognizes a lifetime's work of an architecturally influential person or group.

After training at the University College Dublin, O'Donnell and Tuomey previously worked together at Stirling Wilford Associates and Colquhoun & Miller in London. They then co-founded their practice O'Donnell + Tuomey Architects in Dublin in 1988.

Taking part in "Group 91 Architects" in the early '90s, the husband and wife pair first gained recognition for their first permanent building, the Irish Film Institute (1991). Since then, O'Donnell and Tuomey have built private homes, schools, public housing, and community buildings -- many of their projects crafted in the couple's signature style of smartly arranged brick and sharp-lined geometric forms.

O’Donnell + Tuomey have been shortl...

Meet the Dynamic Duo Behind Architecture Firm Fuksas

2014-05-01T15:16:00-04:00

A key element of his success is that for much of his career, he hasn't been doing the work alone: In a field that often relegates women to the background, the Fuksas firm is a shared enterprise, run in tandem with Doriana Fuksas, his wife since 1981. "Maybe we're complementary," says Doriana (née Mandrelli). "We love the same things, the same feelings and moods—just in a different way. I'm much more pop; he's more classic."