Archinect - News

RIBA honors 2023 Royal Gold Medal winner Yasmeen Lari with short documentary

2023-06-20T11:47:00-04:00

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has released a new short documentary feature honoring 2023 Royal Gold Medalist Yasmeen Lari following her acceptance of the award at a special presentation held last week in London.

The Pakastani-born architect was named the Gold Medal's 174th recipient in April. RIBA recognized Lari, also the first female architect to practice in the country, over her groundbreaking humanitarian and climate-sensitive designs, which showcase “how architecture changes lives for the better,” according to a statement made by President Simon Allford at the announcement.

The 82-year-old detailed her approach to sustainable and seismic design, including her four ‘Zeros’ and refusal to work with cement, steel, and corporate handouts. She also discusses her work with renewable materials such as bamboo, earth, and lime, as well as the role of craft, women designers, and the democratization of the profession in her ongoing architectural aspirations.

Previously ...

Balkrishna Doshi receives RIBA Gold Medal in virtual ceremony

2022-06-15T16:40:00-04:00

Renowned Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi has been formally presented with the 2022 Royal Institute of Architects (RIBA) Royal Gold Medal in a virtual ceremony hosted by the organization and President Simon Allford.

Featuring video tributes from Frank Gehry, Álvaro Siza, and Benedetta Tagliabue, the ceremony honored the 7-decade body of work created by the 2018 Pritzker laureate in a presentation broadcast simultaneously from RIBA’s 66 Portland Place headquarters and the architect’s self-designed 41-year-old Sangath studio in Ahmedabad.

Previously on Archinect: Pritzker Prize laureate Balkrishna Doshi's plea for a Biological City

“What a great honour! The news of this award brought back memories of my time working with Le Corbusier in 1953 when he had just received the news of getting the Royal Gold Medal,” the architect said, speaking of his luminary early mentor. “I vividly recollect his excitement to receive this honour from Her Majesty. He said to me metaphorically, ‘I wonder ho...

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...

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 ...

Architects begin campaign to get Glenn Murcutt the 2019 RIBA Royal Gold Medal

2018-06-26T17:40:00-04:00

Considered long overdue, a bid to award Glenn Murcutt with RIBA's prestigious Royal Gold Medal Award has garnered the support of a group of leading architects. The petition, which has been signed by almost 90 professionals, has esteemed colleagues such as Richard Rogers and Piers Taylor going to bat for the 81-year old Australian architect.

Murcutt, who won the Pritzker Prize in 2002, is considered a prime candidate for the Institute's lifetime achievement award. Working since the early 70s, Murcutt is deeply respected in the profession for eschewing the typical starchitect path, instead running a one-man practice and favoring modest projects to flamboyant buildings.

Magney House, Bingie Bingie, 1982–84 by Glenn Murcutt. Image: Michael Nicholson

His most notable works tend to be his small, single-story residences, almost all exclusively in Australia—such as the Magney House, a long, rectilinear plan with a curved roof in Bingie Bingie.

When, in 2009, Murcutt was honored with the AIA...

The Modern Urbanism of Cook's Camden

2018-01-23T14:08:00-05:00

The council housing designed 50 years ago for a progressive London borough remains a potent symbol of the achievements of postwar social democracy.

Prompted by Mark Swenarton's recent book, Cook's Camden, Douglas Murphy looks at the radically experimental public housing estates built by the London borough from 1966 to 1975, and the reevaluation of these extraordinary projects currently underway in our own era of unaffordable cities and triumphant privatization.

Neave Brown, this year's RIBA Royal Gold Medal laureate, caught by "dumbfounding surprise" to receive highest honor

2017-10-06T14:25:00-04:00

“It is an absolutely dumbfounding surprise [...] I stopped following architecture years ago, so I had no idea there was this renewed interest in my work until recently. I thought my buildings were a curiosity of the past that people had largely forgotten about.” Brown is now celebrated for his inventive housing schemes and enjoys the accolade of being the only living architect to have all of his work in the UK listed. But recognition has been a long time coming.

Social housing pioneer Neave Brown, now 88 years old, was awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal, the UK's highest accolade for architecture, just a week ago. The Guardian architecture critic Oliver Wainwright got a chance to chat with Brown about his career and good London housing.

Current condition of Alexandra Road Estate. Image courtesy of RIBA.

Paulo Mendes de Rocha Awarded Royal Gold Medal by RIBA

2017-02-01T18:02:00-05:00

The Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes de Rocha has been awarded the prestigious Royal Gold Medal by he Royal Institute of British Architects. Presented on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen, the medal is given in recognition of a person or group of person who has, over the course of a lifetime, “either directly or indirectly on the advancement of architecture”.

Mendes da Rocha was born in Vitória, Brazil in 1928. Considered one of the foremost Brazilian architects alive today, he pioneered a unique national version of Brutalism, employing exposed concrete structures and rough finishes. The vast majority of his work is in Brazil.

“Paulo Mendes da Rocha’s work is highly unusual in comparison to the majority of the world’s most celebrated architects,” states RIBA President and chair of the selection committee Jane Duncan. “He is an architect with an incredible international reputation, yet almost all his masterpieces are built exclusively in his home country. Revolutionary and transformative...

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...