Given in recognition of a lifetime’s work, the Royal Gold Medal is approved personally by Her Majesty the Queen and is given to a person or group of people who have had a significant influence “either directly or indirectly on the advancement of architecture”.
The award is for a body of work, rather than for one building or for an architect who is currently fashionable. Previous winners include Le Corbusier (1953), Frank Gehry (2000), Archigram (2002), Frei Otto (2005), Toyo Ito |(2006), Herzog and de Meuron |(2007), Edward (Ted) Cullinan| (2008), Alvaro Siza (2009) and I. M. Pei| (2010).
The RIBA Council has also approved eight new International Fellowships of the RIBA:
Abdel Wahed El-Wakil (Egypt)
MVRDV (Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs & Nathalie de Vries - The Netherlands)
Snøhetta (Kjetil T Thorsen - Norway and Craig Dykers - USA)
Ma Yansong, Mad Architects (China)
Edouard François (France)
And twelve new Honorary Fellowships:
Clive Birch - architecture and project manager
Lucy Bullivant - - architecture curator, author & critic
Tony Chapman – filmmaker, writer and RIBA Head of Awards
Mike Gazzard, - Director of the British Homes Awards
Moira Gemmill - Director of Projects, Design & Estate, V&A
Andrew Grant - landscape designer
James Lovelock - scientist, environmentalist and futurologist
Gwyn Miles - Director, Somerset House Trust
Dan Pearson - landscape designer
Dr Susan Weber Soros - architectural historian
Chris Twinn - environmental services engineer
Ed Vaizey MP, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries
This year’s RIBA Honours Committee was chaired by RIBA President, Ruth Reed with architects Edward Cullinan, Eva Jiricna and Chris Wilkinson, engineer Max Fordham and client Laura Lee. Sir David Chipperfield was nominated by Deborah Saunt, David Adjaye and Ruth Reed.
Images:
1. Neues Museum, © Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz/David Chipperfield Architects, photo: Joerg von Bruchhausen
2. © Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz/David Chipperfield Architects, photo: Christian Richters
