Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects have been awarded the 2020 Pritzker Architecture Prize. Dubbed as the "Nobel Prize" of architecture, the prize is considered the industry's highest honor.
In a press statement announcing their selection, the Farrell wrote, “Architecture could be described as one of the most complex and important cultural activities on the planet. To be an architect is an enormous privilege. To win this prize is a wonderful endorsement of our belief in architecture. Thank you for this great honor.”
To which McNamara added, “Within the ethos of a practice such as ours, we have so often struggled to find space for the implementation of such values as humanism, craft, generosity, and cultural connection with each place and context within which we work. It is therefore extremely gratifying that this recognition is bestowed upon us and our practice and upon the body of work we have managed to produce over a long number of years. It is also a wonderful recognition of the ambition and vision of the clients who commissioned us and enabled us to bring our buildings to fruition.”
Farrell and McNamara were also recently awarded the 2020 RIBA Gold Medal. The pair's Prtizker Architecture Prize win makes Farrell and McNamara the first female duo to win the prize in the history of the award.
In awarding the pair, the 2020 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the selection jury commended the architects for their ability to create authentic architecture, both in terms of how their practice is run but also with regards to how their projects fit into and respond to the sites they build upon.
The jury writes, “For their integrity in their approach to both their buildings, as well as the way they conduct their practice, their belief in collaboration, their generosity towards their colleagues, especially as evidenced in such events as the 2018 Venice Biennale, their unceasing commitment to excellence in architecture, their responsible attitude toward the environment, their ability to be cosmopolitan while embracing the uniqueness of each place in which they work, for all these reasons and more, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara are awarded the 2020 Pritzker Architecture Prize.”
Grafton Architects got its start in 1978 in Dublin, Ireland, where the office is still headquartered. Over the decades, the firm has completed a wide selection of projects, including the Urban Institute of Ireland, a university campus for UTEC Lima, the Loretto Community School in Ireland, and the Universita Luigi Bocconi in Italy.
Farrell and McNamara will join the Pritzker's prestigious list of laureates, which includes Arata Isozaki (2019), Balkrishna Doshi (2018), RCR Arquitectes co-founders Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, and Ramon Vilalta (who collectively won the 2017 prize), Alejandro Aravena (2016), the late Frei Otto (2015), Shigeru Ban (2014), Toyo Ito (2013), Wang Shu (2012), Eduardo Souto de Moura (2011), SANAA (2010), Peter Zumthor (2009), and Paulo Mendes da Rocha (2006).
Check out our Archinect Sessions episode with Yvonne Farrell from 2016 to hear more directly from one of the two architects.
7 Comments
yes!!
This is indeed awesome. ALL architects should work to "...find space for the implementation of such values as humanism, craft, generosity, and cultural connection with each place and context within which we work..."
Love this firm's work SO much!
Looking forward to the El Croquis issue on their work that will surely come out.
Go Irish!
good stuff. HOK snubbed again
Next year will likely swing back to lifetime achievement. I wonder who the next American to win. None for 15 years! Only two in 30! Weird for an American award, huh
lol is this serious? HOK snubbed again?
I'm really glad that a firm led by very accomplished female architects have won the Pritzker.
I am not a fan of their work, however. They seem really fascinated with a kind of brooding, abstract neo-Corbusian formalism that I find oppressive and inhumane. And it's even more baffling to me when I see that they profess to hold "humanist" values and pride themselves on being attuned to place. I don't see it.
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