Archinect - News

Balkrishna Doshi awarded the Royal Gold Medal 2022 by the RIBA

2021-12-09T15:32:00-05:00

Renowned Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi has been announced as the recipient of the Royal Gold Medal 2022 by the RIBA, one of the highest architectural honors in the world. By receiving the award, Doshi joins past winners including Sir David Adjaye (2021), Grafton Architects (2020), and Sir Nicholas Grimshaw (2019). Doshi is also the 2018 recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

RIBA President Simon Alford described Doshi as an individual who was “influenced generations of architects through his delightfully purposeful architecture.” The ninety-four-year-old architect has seen over 100 built projects throughout his 70-year career, influencing the direction of architecture in India and adjacent regions through both his practice and teaching.

Aranya Low-Cost Housing, Indore, India. Photographer: John Panicker (c) Vastushilpa Foundation

Born in 1927 in Pune, India, Doshi studied at the J J School of Architecture, Bombay, before working for four years with Le Corbusier as Seni...

Sir David Adjaye receives RIBA Gold Medal at illustrious virtual event

2021-05-28T17:14:00-04:00

Earlier this week, on May 26th, celebrated Ghanaian-British architect Sir David Adjaye formally received the 2021 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Royal Gold Medal in a virtual ceremony. Surprise luminaries from around the world, including former U.S. President Barack Obama and U2 singer Bono, participated to congratulate Adjaye on his historic accomplishment.

Calling in from Ghana, Adjaye received his award from the UK’s high commissioner to Ghana, Iain Walker, on behalf of the Queen.

Sir David Adjaye receives the RIBA 2021 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, presented by the British High Commissioner Iain Walker. Image: RIBA/Francis Kokoroko 2021

“It’s incredibly humbling and a great honor to have my peers recognize the work I have developed with my team and its contribution to the field over the past 25 years,” Adjaye said upon hearing the news that he received the Royal Gold Medal. “Architecture, for me, has always been about the creation of beauty to edify all people...

Sir David Adjaye receives 2021 Royal Gold Medal

2020-09-30T12:27:00-04:00

The renowned Sir David Adjaye has been named the 2021 recipient of the Royal Gold Medal. The prestigious honor is awarded by RIBA and approved personally by The Queen to recognize a person or group who has "has a significant influence either directly or indirectly on the advancement of architecture."

Smithsonian National Museum of African American Arts and Culture. Washington DC.
© Alan Karchmer

"It’s incredibly humbling and a great honor to have my peers recognize the work I have developed with my team and its contribution to the field over the past 25 years," said Adjaye in a statement upon hearing the news that he would be receiving the honor this year. "Architecture, for me, has always been about the creation of beauty to edify all peoples around the world equally and to contribute to the evolution of the craft. The social impact of this discipline has been and will continue to be the guiding force in the experimentation that informs my practice. A heartfelt and sincere moment o...

Rowan Moore on the added significance of Grafton Architects' RIBA Royal Gold Medal win

2019-10-07T18:36:00-04:00

It is built into the value system of architecture – the ways in which it is taught, published, recognised and awarded – that the most desirable possible outcome of a career is to be a celebrated maker of singular objects, of buildings that can be admired as you would a painting or a symphony. [...] It’s a start that the prize is to Grafton Architects – that is to say, a whole practice – rather than its two principals alone.

Rowan Moore, the Observer’s architecture correspondent, applauds in his recent commentary the decision to award the next RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture to Irish practice Grafton Architects, a deserving team with female principals at the helm, rather than further perpetuating the glorified idol of the lone (overwhelmingly male) genius.

Grafton Architects team © Grafton

"[...] it would be no bad thing if the RIBA followed up on this year’s tap on its (doubtless beautifully designed) glass ceiling by honouring more architects who are both female and not wannabe Howard Roarks," Moore writes. "There is quite a queue of under-recognised women they could choose from."

Grafton Architects win RIBA 2020 Royal Gold Medal

2019-10-02T09:56:00-04:00

The UK’s highest honor for architecture will go to a seminal firm in neighboring Ireland, the Royal Institute of British Architects announced this morning with the selection of Grafton Architects for the 2020 Royal Gold Medal.

Based in Dublin, the practice was co-founded by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara in 1978 (the firm’s name was inspired by their original office on Grafton Street in central Dublin). Gerard Carty and Philippe O’Sullivan, who joined in 1992, now complete the leadership team as directors.

Grafton Architects have built an impressive portfolio of globally recognized buildings, most notably in the education sector, many of which resulted from international competition wins.

Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, Ireland © Ros Kavanagh

"Like architects around the world, everyone in Grafton Architects works hard to give each project the attention needed to hopefully enrich people’s lives," Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara commented on their Royal Gold Medal win.

Bocconi ...

Paulo Mendes da Rocha wins RIBA Royal Gold Medal

2016-09-29T14:11:00-04:00

Paulo Mendes da Rocha is attracting international recognition once again as he continues to rack up top-tier lifetime achievement awards this year. [...] Awarded since 1848 and approved by the Queen of England, the Gold Medal is awarded to an individual or a group of people who have significantly influenced “the advancement of architecture either directly or indirectly”. da Rocha is the second Brazilian architect to win the accolade, joining Oscar Niemeyer who won it in 1998.

Paulo Mendes da Rocha is most known for his work establishing what would become Brazilian Brutalism. From Bustler:

Spearheading the Brutalist movement in his native Sao Paulo, da Rocha is credited for transforming the city with his numerous cultural buildings, which are typically designed in exposed concrete and rough finishes. Born in 1928, da Rocha's architecture career kicked off at a young age when he won the competition to design the gymnasium in the Paulistano Athletics Club (pictured [below]) at age 29.

On the occasion of da Rocha's win, RIBA President and chair of the selection committee Jane Duncan said, "Mendes da Rocha’s work typifies the architecture of 1950s Brazil – raw, chunky and beautifully ‘brutal’ concrete.” Some of his most notable Brazilian projects being: Saint Peter Chapel (1987) [below], the Brazilian Sculpture Museum MuBE (1988), Patriach Plaza (1992-2002), the Pinacoteca do Estado gallery (1993) [second below] and the FIESP Cultural Center (1997).

da Rocha exp...

What's the Big Deal‽ – Assemble, Serpentine and YAP winners, and BIG controversy on Archinect Sessions #52, with special guest co-host Will Galloway

2016-02-11T18:25:00-05:00

Long-time Archinector and reliably sane commentator Will Galloway joins us from his base in Tokyo to discuss the weekly news, including his interview with Assemble, crucially taking place mere weeks before they won the Turner Prize. While news from Bjarke Ingels Group commanded the feistiest comment threads this week – with renderings of BIG's spiraling Hudson Yards tower provoking debate over craft in skyscrapers, and the firm being selected to design the Serpentine Pavilion for 2016 in their last last eligible year – recent news included big wins for firms both star-studded and unknown. MoMA PS1 named Escobedo Solíz Studio as the 2016 winner of its Young Architects Program, for their "Weaving the Courtyard" submission, while Dame Zaha Hadid received her RIBA Gold Medal (the first woman to win solo). Lastly, for you planning wonks, we throw in a brief discussion of a controversial proposed ballot measure to halt big developments in Los Angeles.

Listen to episode 52 of Archinect Se...

Zaha Hadid joins the ranks of RIBA Gold Medalists

2016-02-04T18:11:00-05:00

Following RIBA's announcement back in September, Zaha Hadid was presented with the 2016 Royal Gold Medal yesterday evening...Though particular projects in her practice haven't been without its disputes, Hadid has long been a force in the architectural field. Being the first woman to win on her own accord, the RIBA Gold Medal is a crown jewel to Hadid's illustrious career, as well as another major highlight for women in architecture.

Zaha Hadid announced as winner of 2016 Royal Gold Medal

2015-09-23T21:24:00-04:00

As the first sole woman to win the medal in its 167-year history (women have shared the prize with others before), Zaha Hadid said, "I am very proud to be awarded the Royal Gold Medal, in particular, to be the first woman to receive the honor in her own right. Part of architecture’s job is to make people feel good in the spaces where we live, go to school or where we work - so we must be committed to raising standards. Housing, schools and other vital public buildings have always been based on the concept of minimal existence – that shouldn’t be the case today. Architects now have the skills and tools to address these critical issues.”

Baghdad-born Hadid, who started her now London-based practice in 1979, adds the Queen of England and Royal Institute of British Architects-given award to other notable prizes, including her 2004 Pritzker Architecture Prize.

In Professor Sir Peter Cook's Royal Gold Medal citation, he notes that Hadid's "vociferous criticism of poor work or stupidity re...

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...

Architectural historian Joseph Rykwert receives 2014 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture

2013-09-19T15:32:00-04:00

The Royal Institute of British Architects has announced celebrated architectural critic, historian and writer Joseph Rykwert as the recipient of the 2014 Royal Gold Medal.

Peter Zumthor: RIBA awards gold medal to architecture's man of mystery

2013-02-05T11:34:00-05:00

At the age of 69, he has only built around 20 projects, but each one has caused ripples. He is now courted by millionaires around the globe – from Spiderman's Tobey Maguire to Qatar's Sheikh Saud al-Thani – each desperate for a piece of his pure, unadulterated vision. He is the architect every architect wants to be, the inspiration every student cites. So how did the myth of the mountain man come to be?

Peter Zumthor to Receive the 2013 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture

2012-09-28T19:07:00-04:00

Pritzker-winning architect Peter Zumthor has been announced as the recipient of the 2013 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture. Given in recognition of a lifetime’s work, the Royal Gold Medal is approved personally by the Queen of England and is given to a person or group of people who have had a significant influence on the advancement of architecture.

Herman Hertzberger to Receive the 2012 Royal Gold Medal

2011-12-06T21:20:00-05:00

The Royal Institute of British Architects has named internationally acclaimed Dutch architect Herman Hertzberger as the recipient of the 2012 Royal Gold Medal. Given in recognition of a lifetime's work, the Royal Gold Medal is approved personally by the Queen of England and is awarded annually to a person or group of people whose influence on architecture has had a truly international effect.